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Cities · Tajikistan · capital
Dushanbe, 
Tajikistan
1,440,787 people lived in Dushanbe in 2025. It is the 352nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Tajikistan, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Dushanbe 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 Dushanbe grew
Where Dushanbe had 10 people in 1975, it had 30.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.1 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Dushanbe through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Dushanbe in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tajikistan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Tajikistan and its 25 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Dushanbe 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, Dushanbe covered 187 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 49 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 times its size, and its people are 3 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 Tajikistan
Its share of Tajikistan
Of every 100 people in Tajikistan in 2025, 13 lived in Dushanbe, which is 1.4 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Tajikistan; the coloured squares live in Dushanbe. 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
- 348 Mombasa Kenya1,456,207
- 349 Jilin City China1,448,955
- 350 Angeles Philippines1,445,721
- 351 Gwangju South Korea1,441,495
- 352 Dushanbe1,440,787
- 353 Valencia Venezuela1,435,894
- 354 Medina Saudi Arabia1,432,287
- 355 Aba Nigeria1,428,069
- 356 Al Zaqaziq Egypt1,416,734
In Tajikistan, 2025
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 Dushanbe 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 Dushanbe 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