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Ilesa, 
Nigeria
450,464 people lived in Ilesa in 2025. It is the 1235th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 42nd largest in Nigeria.
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 Ilesa grew
Where Ilesa had 10 people in 1975, it had 29.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 683,658 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Ilesa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ilesa 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 Ilesa; 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, Ilesa covered 79 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 42 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 2.9 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 Ilesa, which is 450,464 people.
How to read this: shrink Nigeria to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Ilesa; 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
- 1231 Maturin Venezuela452,835
- 1232 Jiangyang China452,500
- 1233 Polokwane South Africa451,786
- 1234 Haripur Pakistan451,578
- 1235 Ilesa450,464
- 1236 Basti India450,449
- 1237 Vijayapura India450,192
- 1238 Heyuan China449,860
- 1239 Penza Russia449,851
In Nigeria, 2025
- 1105 Ijebu-Ode500,036
- 1131 Ife492,000
- 1167 Gusau475,004
- 1170 Oshogbo473,929
- 1235 Ilesa450,464
- 1248 Ogbomosho445,090
- 1276 Titi436,744
- 1281 Oron436,247
- 1315 Dere425,674
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 Ilesa 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 Ilesa 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