Topics
Ikot Ekpene, 
Nigeria
418,650 people lived in Ikot Ekpene in 2025. It is the 1343rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 48th largest in Nigeria.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Ikot Ekpene 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 Ikot Ekpene grew
Where Ikot Ekpene had 10 people in 1980, it had 79.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 827,305 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Ikot Ekpene through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ikot Ekpene in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Ikot Ekpene is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Nigeria in 2025, 457 in all, led by Lagos, 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, Ikot Ekpene covered 137 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 18 km² of it. That is 42 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.1 times its size, and its people are 8 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 2 lived in Ikot Ekpene, which is 418,650 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Nigeria; the coloured squares live in Ikot Ekpene. 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
- 1339 Baidoa Somalia420,281
- 1340 Hosur India420,017
- 1341 Basirhat India419,703
- 1342 Mykolaiv Ukraine419,484
- 1343 Ikot Ekpene418,650
- 1344 Petrolina Brazil418,619
- 1345 Nice France418,294
- 1346 Eldoret Kenya418,175
- 1347 Chandrapur India416,903
In Nigeria, 2025
- 1276 Titi436,744
- 1281 Oron436,247
- 1315 Dere425,674
- 1332 Bida421,605
- 1343 Ikot Ekpene418,650
- 1382 Makurdi408,753
- 1392 Abakaliki406,105
- 1401 Asaba403,859
- 1413 Saki400,875
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 Ikot Ekpene are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Ikot Ekpene 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