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Maiduguri, 
Nigeria
1,225,505 people lived in Maiduguri in 2025. It is the 420th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Nigeria.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Maiduguri 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 Maiduguri grew
Where Maiduguri had 10 people in 1975, it had 51.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Maiduguri through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Maiduguri 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). Maiduguri 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, Maiduguri covered 160 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 50 km² of it. That is 41 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 5.1 times its size, and its people are 5.2 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, 5 lived in Maiduguri, which is 1.2 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Nigeria, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Maiduguri's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 416 Copenhagen Denmark1,229,370
- 417 Torreón Mexico1,227,850
- 418 Liverpool United Kingdom1,227,470
- 419 Vitória Brazil1,226,500
- 420 Maiduguri1,225,505
- 421 Dehradun India1,219,198
- 422 Ashgabat Turkmenistan1,218,323
- 423 Tangier Morocco1,217,976
- 424 Ganzhou China1,216,248
In Nigeria, 2025
- 355 Aba1,428,069
- 367 Aboh1,374,320
- 368 Abuja1,373,722
- 399 Ilorin1,282,219
- 420 Maiduguri1,225,505
- 464 Enugu1,115,303
- 503 Otite1,020,218
- 561 Jos923,652
- 565 Ikorodu916,166
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 Maiduguri 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 Maiduguri 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