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Kenema, 
Sierra Leone
249,485 people lived in Kenema in 2025. It is the 2342nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Sierra Leone.
Like every city on this site, Kenema 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 Kenema grew
For every 10 people in Kenema in 1975, there were 33.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 310,653 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030.
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
Kenema through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kenema in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Sierra Leone · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sierra Leone and its 11 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Freetown). Kenema 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, Kenema covered 38 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 8.1 km² of it. That is 32 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.1 times its size, and its people are 3.4 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 Sierra Leone
Its share of Sierra Leone
Of every 100 people in Sierra Leone in 2025, 3 lived in Kenema, which is 249,485 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Sierra Leone; the coloured squares live in Kenema. 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
- 2335 Laredo United States249,861
- 2336 Cutler Bay United States249,822
- 2337 Chakwal Pakistan249,801
- 2338 Pattoki Pakistan249,646
- 2342 Kenema249,485
- 2344 Edgecliff Village United States249,260
- 2347 Balrampur India248,830
- 2348 Dausa India248,804
- 2350 Cherkasy Ukraine248,683
In Sierra Leone, 2025
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 Kenema 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 Kenema 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