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Libreville, 
Gabon
921,216 people lived in Libreville in 2025. It is the 562nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Gabon, where it is the capital.
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 Libreville grew
Count 10 people in Libreville in 1975 and the same count gives 106 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Libreville through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Libreville in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Gabon · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Libreville is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Gabon in 2025, 6 in all, 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, Libreville covered 175 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 49 km² of it. That is 54 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3 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 Gabon
Its share of Gabon
Of every 100 people in Gabon in 2025, 36 lived in Libreville, which is 921,216 people.
How to read this: shrink Gabon to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Libreville; 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
- 558 Ma'anshan China929,836
- 559 Teresina Brazil929,795
- 560 Chandanaish Bangladesh928,788
- 561 Jos Nigeria923,652
- 562 Libreville921,216
- 563 Jerusalem Israel920,478
- 564 Xuchang China916,553
- 565 Ikorodu Nigeria916,166
- 566 Shiraz Iran914,496
In Gabon, 2025
- 562 Libreville921,216
- 1969 Franceville294,863
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 Libreville 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 Libreville 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