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Johannesburg, 
South Africa
7,077,175 people lived in Johannesburg in 2025. It is the 50th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in South Africa.
Like every city on this site, Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg grew
For every 10 people in Johannesburg in 1975, there were 59.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 8.9 million people in 2050. It passed five million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Johannesburg through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Johannesburg in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Africa · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: South Africa and its 95 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people. Johannesburg is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Johannesburg covered 1,445 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 406 km² of it. That is 57 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.8 times its size, and its people are 6 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 South Africa
Its share of South Africa
Of every 100 people in South Africa in 2025, 11 lived in Johannesburg, which is 7.1 million people.
How to read this: shrink South Africa to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Johannesburg; 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
- 46 Wuhan China7,363,548
- 47 Tianjin China7,285,342
- 48 Alexandria Egypt7,266,957
- 49 Nagoya Japan7,146,160
- 50 Johannesburg7,077,175
- 51 Chongqing China7,071,073
- 52 Riyadh Saudi Arabia6,916,417
- 53 Surat India6,908,925
- 54 Surabaya Indonesia6,843,503
In South Africa, 2025
- 50 Johannesburg7,077,175
- 93 Cape Town4,508,921
- 153 Durban3,177,927
- 273 Pretoria1,836,166
- 396 Klipgat1,300,816
- 398 Tembisa1,298,512
- 688 Evaton773,229
- 824 Gqeberha661,220
- 1056 Masetjhaba View522,402
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 Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg 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