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Kapiri Mposhi, 
Zambia
141,802 people lived in Kapiri Mposhi in 2025. It is the 4302nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in Zambia.
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 Kapiri Mposhi grew
Count 10 people in Kapiri Mposhi in 1995 and the same count gives 24 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 325,257 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2040 and 2045. 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: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Kapiri Mposhi through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kapiri Mposhi in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zambia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kapiri Mposhi is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Zambia in 2025, 33 in all, led by Lusaka, 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, Kapiri Mposhi covered 28 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.4 km² of it. That is 45 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 2.4 times its size, and its people are 2.4 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 Zambia
Its share of Zambia
Of every 1,000 people in Zambia in 2025, 6 lived in Kapiri Mposhi, which is 141,802 people.
How to read this: shrink Zambia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Kapiri Mposhi; 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
- 4221 Buligenyi Uganda144,692
- 4275 Abu Huminus Egypt142,823
- 4282 Kribi Cameroon142,534
- 4293 Amrit Egypt142,164
- 4302 Kapiri Mposhi141,802
- 4305 Buulo Mareer Somalia141,522
- 4306 Leku Ethiopia141,486
- 4307 Lucapa Angola141,466
- 4324 Gurue Mozambique141,061
In Zambia, 2025
- 1976 Chingola294,193
- 2177 Kabwe267,618
- 2517 Kasama233,587
- 2926 Livingstone203,972
- 4302 Kapiri Mposhi141,802
- 4554 Chilanga133,860
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 Kapiri Mposhi 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 Kapiri Mposhi 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