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Minna, 
Nigeria
516,451 people lived in Minna in 2025. It is the 1076th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 37th largest in Nigeria.
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 Minna grew
For every 10 people in Minna in 1975, there were 44.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 878,666 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Minna through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Minna 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). Minna 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, Minna covered 89 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 27 km² of it. That is 52 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 times its size, and its people are 4.5 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 Minna, which is 516,451 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 Minna; 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
- 1072 Manono Democratic Republic of the Congo517,304
- 1073 Kerman Iran517,216
- 1074 Port Sudan Sudan517,023
- 1075 Concepción Chile516,741
- 1076 Minna516,451
- 1077 Lobito Angola516,153
- 1078 Zhuji China515,549
- 1079 Chenzhou China514,905
- 1080 Saurimo Angola514,728
In Nigeria, 2025
- 917 Katsina594,775
- 933 Yenagoa586,393
- 939 Madalla583,367
- 972 Ondo564,330
- 1076 Minna516,451
- 1105 Ijebu-Ode500,036
- 1131 Ife492,000
- 1167 Gusau475,004
- 1170 Oshogbo473,929
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 Minna 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 Minna 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