Topics
Dere, 
Nigeria
425,674 people lived in Dere in 2025. It is the 1315th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 46th largest in Nigeria.
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 Dere grew
For every 10 people in Dere in 1980, there were 66.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 686,049 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Dere through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dere in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Dere is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Nigeria in 2025, 457 in all, led by Lagos, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Dere covered 27 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 4.3 km² of it. That is 10 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 6.7 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 2 lived in Dere, which is 425,674 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Nigeria; the coloured squares live in Dere. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1311 Hanchuan China426,922
- 1312 Orenburg Russia426,263
- 1313 Gresik Indonesia426,246
- 1314 Longquanyi China426,144
- 1315 Dere425,674
- 1316 Torit South Sudan424,731
- 1317 Ranghulu China424,460
- 1318 Ziyang China424,328
- 1319 Shivamogga India423,880
In Nigeria, 2025
- 1235 Ilesa450,464
- 1248 Ogbomosho445,090
- 1276 Titi436,744
- 1281 Oron436,247
- 1315 Dere425,674
- 1332 Bida421,605
- 1343 Ikot Ekpene418,650
- 1382 Makurdi408,753
- 1392 Abakaliki406,105
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Dere are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Dere 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