Topics
Luanda, 
Angola
11,370,127 people lived in Luanda in 2025. It is the 28th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Angola, 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 Luanda grew
Count 10 people in Luanda in 1995 and the same count gives 371 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 20.3 million people in 2050. It passed ten million people between 2020 and 2025. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Luanda through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Luanda in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Angola · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Luanda is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Angola in 2025, 57 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, Luanda covered 1,039 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 316 km² of it. That is 28 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 4.1 times its size, and its people are 37.1 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 Angola
Its share of Angola
Of every 100 people in Angola in 2025, 29 lived in Luanda, which is 11.4 million people.
How to read this: shrink Angola to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Luanda; 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
- 24 Bengaluru India13,187,098
- 25 Osaka Japan12,964,145
- 26 Lagos Nigeria12,791,699
- 27 Los Angeles United States12,740,420
- 28 Luanda11,370,127
- 29 Chennai India11,153,205
- 30 Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo10,943,641
- 31 Bogotá Colombia10,624,315
- 32 Lima Peru10,580,241
In Angola, 2025
- 28 Luanda11,370,127
- 400 Lubango1,280,986
- 440 Cabinda1,157,345
- 532 Malanje973,086
- 752 Luena714,289
- 781 Cuito689,795
- 853 Huambo634,669
- 926 Benguela589,289
- 1077 Lobito516,153
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 Luanda are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Luanda 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