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Dakar, 
Senegal
3,852,475 people lived in Dakar in 2025. It is the 120th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Senegal, where it is the capital.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Dakar grew
For every 10 people in Dakar in 1975, there were 41.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.4 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2040 and 2045.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Dakar through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dakar in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Senegal · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Senegal and its 26 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Dakar is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Dakar covered 284 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 85 km² of it. That is 22 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 64%, and its people are 4.1 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Senegal
Its share of Senegal
Of every 100 people in Senegal in 2025, 20 lived in Dakar, which is 3.9 million people.
How to read this: shrink Senegal to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Dakar; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 116 Monterrey Mexico3,938,015
- 117 Tashkent Uzbekistan3,935,793
- 118 Antananarivo Madagascar3,916,219
- 119 Varanasi India3,858,863
- 120 Dakar3,852,475
- 121 Owerri Nigeria3,833,343
- 122 Ürümqi China3,755,144
- 123 Ibadan Nigeria3,720,721
- 124 Recife Brazil3,691,196
In Senegal, 2025
- 120 Dakar3,852,475
- 446 Touba1,151,552
- 992 M'bour553,170
- 1059 Thiès521,678
- 1365 Kaolack412,347
- 2057 Ziguinchor282,751
- 2153 Saint-Louis270,413
- 2430 Tambacounda241,254
- 2461 Diourbel237,795
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Dakar are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Dakar publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries