Topics
Harare, 
Zimbabwe
2,117,195 people lived in Harare in 2025. It is the 238th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Zimbabwe, where it is the capital.
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 Harare grew
Where Harare had 10 people in 1975, it had 42.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1985 and 1990.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Harare through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Harare in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zimbabwe · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Harare is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Zimbabwe in 2025, 15 in all, 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, Harare covered 606 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 130 km² of it. That is 61 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.3 times its size, and its people are 4.3 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Zimbabwe
Its share of Zimbabwe
Of every 100 people in Zimbabwe in 2025, 12 lived in Harare, which is 2.1 million people.
How to read this: shrink Zimbabwe to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Harare; 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
- 234 Cixi China2,177,489
- 235 San José Costa Rica2,171,213
- 236 Madurai India2,138,746
- 237 Palembang Indonesia2,132,576
- 238 Harare2,117,195
- 239 Banha Egypt2,088,520
- 240 Rabat Morocco2,069,287
- 241 Basra Iraq2,033,553
- 242 Vienna Austria2,031,326
In Zimbabwe, 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 Harare 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 Harare 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