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Cities · Democratic Republic of the Congo
Kikwit, 
Democratic Republic of the Congo
549,102 people lived in Kikwit in 2025. It is the 1003rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 14th largest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Like every city on this site, Kikwit 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 Kikwit grew
Where Kikwit had 10 people in 1975, it had 22.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 856,487 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1980 and 1985.
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
Kikwit through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kikwit in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Democratic Republic of the Congo · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kikwit is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 223 in all, led by Kinshasa, 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, Kikwit covered 74 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.8 times its size, and its people are 2.3 times as many.
How to read this: pale is the whole of the city's land; the stronger square inside it is what is actually built on. The three are drawn to the same scale, so a larger square really is more land, and hatching means the year is the UN's projection rather than a count.
Of every 100 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Its share of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Of every 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 5 lived in Kikwit, which is 549,102 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the coloured squares live in Kikwit. 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
- 999 Bahraich India550,317
- 1000 Riga Latvia550,267
- 1001 Sheffield United Kingdom549,695
- 1002 Purwakarta Indonesia549,480
- 1003 Kikwit549,102
- 1004 Port Louis Mauritius549,015
- 1005 Arrah India547,584
- 1006 Meishan China546,811
- 1007 Huangdao District China545,983
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2025
- 704 Kalemie758,379
- 741 Kamina724,982
- 809 Likasi673,034
- 941 Bunia582,792
- 1003 Kikwit549,102
- 1072 Manono517,304
- 1224 Butembo454,857
- 1244 Kolwezi446,709
- 1267 Gemena440,327
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 Kikwit 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 Kikwit 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