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Embu, 
Kenya
164,283 people lived in Embu in 2025. It is the 3687th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 13th largest in Kenya.
Like every city on this site, Embu 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 Embu grew
Where Embu had 10 people in 2015, it had 22.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 310,628 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 2015, 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
Embu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Embu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kenya · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 50 cities in Kenya in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Nairobi. The ringed dot in colour is Embu; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Embu covered 29 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 3.8 km² of it. That is 23 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 2015, its built-up land has grown to 2 times its size, and its people are 2.3 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 Kenya
Its share of Kenya
Of every 1,000 people in Kenya in 2025, 3 lived in Embu, which is 164,283 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Kenya; the coloured squares live in Embu. 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
- 3659 Sandoa Democratic Republic of the Congo165,522
- 3667 Akhaura Bangladesh165,093
- 3670 Geita Tanzania165,000
- 3680 Iksan-si South Korea164,566
- 3687 Embu164,283
- 3695 Durame Ethiopia163,896
- 3696 Cazombo Angola163,870
- 3712 Delduar Bangladesh163,064
- 3713 Kawm Ombo Egypt162,984
In Kenya, 2025
- 1720 Garissa333,505
- 2526 Mutuati232,440
- 2983 Kisii200,579
- 3249 Naivasha185,944
- 3687 Embu164,283
- 4078 Ongata Rongai148,823
- 5136 Vihiga119,644
- 7167 Kiambu86,758
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 Embu are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2015 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 Embu 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