Topics
Garissa, 
Kenya
333,505 people lived in Garissa in 2025. It is the 1720th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Kenya.
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 Garissa grew
For every 10 people in Garissa in 2005, there were 46.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 458,944 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 2005, 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
Garissa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Garissa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kenya · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Garissa is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Kenya in 2025, 50 in all, led by Nairobi, 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, Garissa covered 41 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 10 km² of it. That is 30 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 2005, its built-up land has grown to 2.8 times its size, and its people are 4.6 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, 6 lived in Garissa, which is 333,505 people.
How to read this: shrink Kenya to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Garissa; 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
- 1716 Neiva Colombia333,744
- 1717 Nagaon India333,706
- 1718 Xuanhua China333,650
- 1719 Sikar India333,509
- 1720 Garissa333,505
- 1721 Gwagwalada Nigeria333,464
- 1722 Basel Switzerland333,021
- 1723 Nicosia Cyprus333,008
- 1724 Rudrapur India332,826
In Kenya, 2025
- 348 Mombasa1,456,207
- 955 Nakuru574,091
- 1299 Kisumu430,532
- 1346 Eldoret418,175
- 1720 Garissa333,505
- 2526 Mutuati232,440
- 2983 Kisii200,579
- 3249 Naivasha185,944
- 3687 Embu164,283
How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Garissa are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2005 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 Garissa 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