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Lilongwe, 
Malawi
961,399 people lived in Lilongwe in 2025. It is the 540th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Malawi, where it is the capital.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Lilongwe's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Lilongwe grew
For every 10 people in Lilongwe in 1985, there were 117 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 1985, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Lilongwe through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Lilongwe in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malawi · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Lilongwe is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Malawi in 2025, 8 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, Lilongwe covered 142 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 38 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1985, its built-up land has grown to 5.3 times its size, and its people are 11.7 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 Malawi
Its share of Malawi
Of every 100 people in Malawi in 2025, 4 lived in Lilongwe, which is 961,399 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Malawi; the coloured squares live in Lilongwe. 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
- 536 Xiangyang China969,011
- 537 Fushan China968,359
- 538 Zanzibar City Tanzania966,642
- 539 Dharwad India965,667
- 540 Lilongwe961,399
- 541 San Miguel de Tucumán Argentina959,565
- 542 Konya Türkiye959,484
- 543 Samara Russia955,599
- 544 Mwanza Tanzania954,104
In Malawi, 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 Lilongwe are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1985 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 Lilongwe 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