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Jimma, 
Ethiopia
336,448 people lived in Jimma in 2025. It is the 1698th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in Ethiopia.
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 Jimma grew
For every 10 people in Jimma in 1985, there were 46.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 516,433 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2015 and 2020. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Jimma through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Jimma in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Jimma is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Ethiopia in 2025, 259 in all, led by Addis Ababa, 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, Jimma covered 53 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 9.2 km² of it. That is 27 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 8.4 times its size, and its people are 4.7 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 Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 2 lived in Jimma, which is 336,448 people.
How to read this: shrink Ethiopia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Jimma; 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
- 1694 Sihui China337,299
- 1695 Mandi Bahauddin Pakistan337,161
- 1696 Thakurdwara India336,772
- 1697 Sidfa Egypt336,659
- 1698 Jimma336,448
- 1699 Shuozhou China336,303
- 1700 Ningguo China336,274
- 1701 Pupri India336,223
- 1702 Shouguang China336,017
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 1257 Bishoftu442,776
- 1327 Jijiga422,225
- 1448 Gonder392,767
- 1583 Dilla360,925
- 1698 Jimma336,448
- 1876 Dessie306,979
- 1881 Mek'elē305,037
- 2012 Kombolcha288,941
- 2185 Bule Hora267,051
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 Jimma are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Jimma 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