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Debre Birhan, 
Ethiopia
156,788 people lived in Debre Birhan in 2025. It is the 3864th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 40th largest in Ethiopia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Debre Birhan governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Debre Birhan grew
Where Debre Birhan had 10 people in 1985, it had 28.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 323,881 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2040 and 2045. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Debre Birhan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Debre Birhan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ethiopia and its 259 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Addis Ababa). Debre Birhan 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, Debre Birhan covered 18 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 4.0 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 2.9 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 1 lived in Debre Birhan, which is 156,788 people.
How to read this: shrink Ethiopia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Debre Birhan; 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
- 3817 Ambatolahy II Madagascar158,588
- 3823 Shufune158,225
- 3825 Musumba Democratic Republic of the Congo158,159
- 3846 ad-Damer Sudan157,497
- 3864 Debre Birhan156,788
- 3870 Kafr Saqr Egypt156,498
- 3871 Shahabad India156,497
- 3881 Bến Tre Vietnam156,097
- 3883 Madaoua Niger156,053
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 3568 Kefole169,474
- 3575 Aleta Wendo169,004
- 3695 Durame163,896
- 3823 Shufune158,225
- 3864 Debre Birhan156,788
- 3914 Sodo154,912
- 4306 Leku141,486
- 4681 Areka130,386
- 4902 Basha124,959
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 Debre Birhan are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Debre Birhan 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