Topics
Mombasa, 
Kenya
1,456,207 people lived in Mombasa in 2025. It is the 348th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Kenya.
Like every city on this site, Mombasa is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Mombasa grew
For every 10 people in Mombasa in 1975, there were 71.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.8 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Mombasa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mombasa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kenya · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Kenya and its 50 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Nairobi). Mombasa 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, Mombasa covered 186 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 37 km² of it. That is 26 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.4 times its size, and its people are 7.2 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 Kenya
Its share of Kenya
Of every 100 people in Kenya in 2025, 3 lived in Mombasa, which is 1.5 million people.
How to read this: shrink Kenya to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mombasa; 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
- 344 Kigali Rwanda1,483,711
- 345 Raipur India1,478,688
- 346 Cordoba Argentina1,460,491
- 347 Xiuying District China1,458,377
- 348 Mombasa1,456,207
- 349 Jilin City China1,448,955
- 350 Angeles Philippines1,445,721
- 351 Gwangju South Korea1,441,495
- 352 Dushanbe Tajikistan1,440,787
In Kenya, 2025
- 65 Nairobi6,134,334
- 348 Mombasa1,456,207
- 955 Nakuru574,091
- 1299 Kisumu430,532
- 1346 Eldoret418,175
- 1720 Garissa333,505
- 2526 Mutuati232,440
- 2983 Kisii200,579
- 3249 Naivasha185,944
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 Mombasa 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 Mombasa 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