Topics
Managua, 
Nicaragua
1,315,865 people lived in Managua in 2025. It is the 389th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Nicaragua, 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 Managua grew
For every 10 people in Managua in 1975, there were 31.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.4 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Managua through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Managua in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nicaragua · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Managua is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Nicaragua in 2025, 12 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, Managua covered 220 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 57 km² of it. That is 43 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.1 times its size, and its people are 3.1 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Nicaragua
Its share of Nicaragua
Of every 100 people in Nicaragua in 2025, 19 lived in Managua, which is 1.3 million people.
How to read this: shrink Nicaragua to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Managua; 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
- 385 Zhongshan China1,326,078
- 386 Samarinda Indonesia1,325,554
- 387 Kishoreganj Bangladesh1,324,096
- 388 Anshan China1,322,386
- 389 Managua1,315,865
- 390 Yichang China1,314,779
- 391 Asunción Paraguay1,314,663
- 392 Guwahati India1,314,019
- 393 Tabriz Iran1,309,004
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Managua 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 Managua 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