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Lusaka, 
Zambia
3,510,723 people lived in Lusaka in 2025. It is the 135th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Zambia, 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 Lusaka grew
Count 10 people in Lusaka in 1975 and the same count gives 160.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 6.6 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2035 and 2040.
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
Lusaka through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Lusaka in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zambia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 33 cities in Zambia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Lusaka; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Lusaka covered 394 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 118 km² of it. That is 34 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.4 times its size, and its people are 16 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 Zambia
Its share of Zambia
Of every 100 people in Zambia in 2025, 16 lived in Lusaka, which is 3.5 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Zambia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Lusaka's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 131 Karaj Iran3,598,661
- 132 Berlin Germany3,560,908
- 133 Savar Bangladesh3,557,381
- 134 Peshawar Pakistan3,554,423
- 135 Lusaka3,510,723
- 136 Indore India3,476,423
- 137 Jinan China3,472,980
- 138 Changsha China3,457,508
- 139 Medellín Colombia3,350,384
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: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Lusaka 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 Lusaka 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