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Leku, 
Ethiopia
141,486 people lived in Leku in 2025. It is the 4306th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 50th largest in Ethiopia.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Leku governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Leku grew
Where Leku had 10 people in 1975, it had 15.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 460,694 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Leku through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Leku in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Leku is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Ethiopia in 2025, 259 in all, led by Addis Ababa, 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, Leku covered 8 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 1.2 km² of it. That is 8 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 2020, its built-up land has grown by 20%, and its people have grown by 9%.
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 Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 1 lived in Leku, which is 141,486 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Ethiopia; the coloured squares live in Leku. 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
- 4282 Kribi Cameroon142,534
- 4293 Amrit Egypt142,164
- 4302 Kapiri Mposhi Zambia141,802
- 4305 Buulo Mareer Somalia141,522
- 4306 Leku141,486
- 4307 Lucapa Angola141,466
- 4324 Gurue Mozambique141,061
- 4339 Manazil Baradan Yemen140,682
- 4351 Al Kifl Iraq140,343
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 3695 Durame163,896
- 3823 Shufune158,225
- 3864 Debre Birhan156,788
- 3914 Sodo154,912
- 4306 Leku141,486
- 4681 Areka130,386
- 4902 Basha124,959
- 4936 Boditi123,992
- 5067 Yirga Cheffe121,109
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 Leku 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 Leku 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