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Kitwe, 
Zambia
678,749 people lived in Kitwe in 2025. It is the 798th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Zambia.
Like every city on this site, Kitwe 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 Kitwe grew
Where Kitwe had 10 people in 1975, it had 106.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.0 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2045 and 2050.
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
Kitwe through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Kitwe in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zambia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zambia and its 33 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lusaka). Kitwe 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, Kitwe covered 115 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 45 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.5 times its size, and its people are 10.6 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 100 people in Zambia in 2025, 3 lived in Kitwe, which is 678,749 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Zambia; the coloured squares live in Kitwe. 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
- 794 Youyi China680,993
- 795 Jamnagar India680,589
- 796 Winnipeg Canada679,037
- 797 Garoua Cameroon678,769
- 798 Kitwe678,749
- 799 Jingzhou China678,632
- 800 Ankang China678,483
- 801 Yamunanagar India677,536
- 802 Mymensingh Bangladesh677,433
In Zambia, 2025
- 135 Lusaka3,510,723
- 798 Kitwe678,749
- 1034 Ndola535,108
- 1710 Mansa335,503
- 1976 Chingola294,193
- 2177 Kabwe267,618
- 2517 Kasama233,587
- 2926 Livingstone203,972
- 4302 Kapiri Mposhi141,802
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 Kitwe 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 Kitwe 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