Ilebo, Democratic Republic of the Congo

For every 10 people in Ilebo in 1975, there were 60.9 in 2025.

On the UN's projection it will have 556,294 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020.

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.

How to read this: Ilebo is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 223 in all, led by Kinshasa, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.

In 2025, Ilebo covered 22 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 4.0 km² of it. That is 12 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown by 74%, and its people are 6.1 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 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 3 lived in Ilebo, which is 321,392 people.

How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Ilebo's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.

In the world, 2025

1. 1787 Timofeevka Russia321,680
2. 1788 Katni India321,522
3. 1789 Bafoussam Cameroon321,489
4. 1790 Chuzhou China321,424
5. 1791 Ilebo321,392
6. 1792 Quảng Ngãi Vietnam320,907
7. 1793 Famenin Iran320,591
8. 1794 Trabzon Türkiye320,468
9. 1795 Ranipet India320,233

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2025

1. 1504 Matadi377,297
2. 1631 Mwene-Ditu351,319
3. 1653 Ngandajika345,996
4. 1784 Mulongo321,881
5. 1791 Ilebo321,392
6. 1859 Kindu309,727
7. 1928 Fungurume298,713
8. 1973 Kasumbalesa294,623
9. 1985 Kasaji292,523

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.

Democratic Republic of the Congo · All the world's cities

The figures for Ilebo 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 Ilebo 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