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Douala, 
Cameroon
4,104,516 people lived in Douala in 2025. It is the 109th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Cameroon.
Like every city on this site, Douala is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Douala grew
For every 10 people in Douala in 1975, there were 114.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 6.4 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Douala through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Douala in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Cameroon · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Cameroon and its 44 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Yaoundé). Douala 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, Douala covered 285 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 86 km² of it. That is 21 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.5 times its size, and its people are 11.4 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 Cameroon
Its share of Cameroon
Of every 100 people in Cameroon in 2025, 14 lived in Douala, which is 4.1 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Cameroon; the coloured squares live in Douala. 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
- 105 Belo Horizonte Brazil4,162,814
- 106 Wenzhou China4,158,195
- 107 Sydney Australia4,150,917
- 108 Guadalajara Mexico4,135,440
- 109 Douala4,104,516
- 110 Jaipur India4,071,754
- 111 Sana'a Yemen4,018,856
- 112 Taiyuan China4,005,816
- 113 Puning China3,989,322
In Cameroon, 2025
- 79 Yaoundé5,106,087
- 109 Douala4,104,516
- 797 Garoua678,769
- 1052 Maroua526,702
- 1442 Bamenda394,155
- 1658 Ngaoundéré345,148
- 1745 Kumba329,340
- 1789 Bafoussam321,489
- 2389 Kousseri244,247
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 Douala 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 Douala 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