Topics
Kahama, 
Tanzania
160,713 people lived in Kahama in 2025. It is the 3768th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 19th largest in Tanzania.
Like every city on this site, Kahama 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 Kahama grew
Where Kahama had 10 people in 1995, it had 32.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 369,521 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2035 and 2040. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, 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
Kahama through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kahama in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 45 cities in Tanzania in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Dar es Salaam. The ringed dot in colour is Kahama; 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, Kahama covered 44 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 70 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 3.6 times its size, and its people are 3.2 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 100 people in Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 1,000 people in Tanzania in 2025, 2 lived in Kahama, which is 160,713 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Tanzania; the coloured squares live in Kahama. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 3721 Samarbagh Pakistan162,603
- 3726 Mihtarlam Afghanistan162,346
- 3740 Fenchuganj Bangladesh161,718
- 3741 N'dalatando Angola161,700
- 3768 Kahama160,713
- 3796 Masaka Uganda159,564
- 3800 Ash Shajarah Yemen159,506
- 3815 San José del Cabo Mexico158,693
- 3817 Ambatolahy II Madagascar158,588
In Tanzania, 2025
- 3121 Musoma192,622
- 3311 Sumbawanga181,940
- 3485 Bukoba173,889
- 3670 Geita165,000
- 3768 Kahama160,713
- 3895 Katoro155,625
- 4771 Mtwara128,086
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Kahama are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Kahama 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