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Madalla, 
Nigeria
583,367 people lived in Madalla in 2025. It is the 939th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 35th largest in Nigeria.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Madalla 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 Madalla grew
Where Madalla had 10 people in 1975, it had 61.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.0 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2045 and 2050.
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
Madalla through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Madalla in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nigeria and its 457 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lagos). Madalla is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Madalla covered 104 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 28 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 11.1 times its size, and its people are 6.1 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 2 lived in Madalla, which is 583,367 people.
How to read this: shrink Nigeria to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Madalla; 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
- 935 Loudi China585,521
- 936 Cangzhou China585,507
- 937 Adama Ethiopia584,854
- 938 Ujjain India583,405
- 939 Madalla583,367
- 940 Oujda Morocco583,116
- 941 Bunia Democratic Republic of the Congo582,792
- 942 Lodz Poland582,659
- 943 Rajamahendravaram India582,520
In Nigeria, 2025
- 911 Ado Ekiti598,230
- 916 Ogale595,099
- 917 Katsina594,775
- 933 Yenagoa586,393
- 939 Madalla583,367
- 972 Ondo564,330
- 1076 Minna516,451
- 1105 Ijebu-Ode500,036
- 1131 Ife492,000
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 Madalla 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 Madalla 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