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Jos, 
Nigeria
923,652 people lived in Jos in 2025. It is the 561st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 18th largest in Nigeria.
Like every city on this site, Jos 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 Jos grew
For every 10 people in Jos in 1975, there were 53.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Jos through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Jos 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 Jos; 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, Jos covered 202 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 53 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 4.4 times its size, and its people are 5.4 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, 4 lived in Jos, which is 923,652 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 Jos; 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
- 557 Banjarmasin Indonesia930,711
- 558 Ma'anshan China929,836
- 559 Teresina Brazil929,795
- 560 Chandanaish Bangladesh928,788
- 561 Jos923,652
- 562 Libreville Gabon921,216
- 563 Jerusalem Israel920,478
- 564 Xuchang China916,553
- 565 Ikorodu916,166
In Nigeria, 2025
- 399 Ilorin1,282,219
- 420 Maiduguri1,225,505
- 464 Enugu1,115,303
- 503 Otite1,020,218
- 561 Jos923,652
- 565 Ikorodu916,166
- 572 Sokoto903,238
- 622 Umuahia843,245
- 633 Nsukka830,196
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 Jos 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 Jos 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