Topics
Mogadishu, 
Somalia
Muqdisho
4,399,430 people lived in Mogadishu in 2025. It is the 95th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Somalia, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Mogadishu governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
In its own language: Muqdisho.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Mogadishu grew
For every 10 people in Mogadishu in 1975, there were 99.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 7.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Mogadishu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mogadishu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Somalia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mogadishu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Somalia in 2025, 53 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, Mogadishu covered 206 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 57 km² of it. That is 13 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.7 times its size, and its people are 9.9 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Somalia
Its share of Somalia
Of every 100 people in Somalia in 2025, 22 lived in Mogadishu, which is 4.4 million people.
How to read this: shrink Somalia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mogadishu; 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
- 91 Saint Petersburg Russia4,736,499
- 92 Santo Domingo Dominican Republic4,600,064
- 93 Cape Town South Africa4,508,921
- 94 Casablanca Morocco4,457,471
- 95 Mogadishu4,399,430
- 96 Harbin China4,376,259
- 97 Kanpur India4,329,973
- 98 Kumasi Ghana4,297,984
- 99 Damascus Syria4,287,746
In Somalia, 2025
- 95 Mogadishu4,399,430
- 310 Hargeisa1,593,542
- 1207 Kismayo461,302
- 1310 Burao427,013
- 1339 Baidoa420,281
- 1571 Borama363,753
- 1823 Wanlaweyn314,824
- 1915 Merca299,906
- 1992 Beledweyne291,630
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 Mogadishu 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 Mogadishu 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