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Ibadan, 
Nigeria
3,720,721 people lived in Ibadan in 2025. It is the 123rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Nigeria.
Like every city on this site, Ibadan 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 Ibadan grew
Count 10 people in Ibadan in 1975 and the same count gives 45.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 4.7 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Ibadan through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ibadan in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 457 cities in Nigeria in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Lagos. The ringed dot in colour is Ibadan; 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, Ibadan covered 543 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 182 km² of it. That is 49 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.6 times its size, and its people are 4.5 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 100 people in Nigeria in 2025, 2 lived in Ibadan, which is 3.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Nigeria, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Ibadan's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 119 Varanasi India3,858,863
- 120 Dakar Senegal3,852,475
- 121 Owerri3,833,343
- 122 Ürümqi China3,755,144
- 123 Ibadan3,720,721
- 124 Recife Brazil3,691,196
- 125 Chicago United States3,683,385
- 126 Brazzaville Republic of the Congo3,656,322
- 127 Melbourne Australia3,639,893
In Nigeria, 2025
- 26 Lagos12,791,699
- 69 Onitsha5,627,706
- 89 Kano4,840,280
- 121 Owerri3,833,343
- 123 Ibadan3,720,721
- 211 Port Harcourt2,341,445
- 266 Kaduna1,890,448
- 271 Benin City1,845,432
- 305 Warri1,607,702
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 Ibadan 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 Ibadan 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