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Monrovia, 
Liberia
1,879,092 people lived in Monrovia in 2025. It is the 268th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Liberia, where it is the capital.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Monrovia 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 Monrovia grew
Where Monrovia had 10 people in 1975, it had 293.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.5 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1985 and 1990.
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
Monrovia through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Monrovia in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Liberia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 9 cities in Liberia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Monrovia; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Monrovia covered 302 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 71 km² of it. That is 38 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 7.4 times its size, and its people are 29.3 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 Liberia
Its share of Liberia
Of every 100 people in Liberia in 2025, 33 lived in Monrovia, which is 1.9 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Liberia; the coloured squares live in Monrovia. The grey rest live in other cities, in towns or in the countryside.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 264 Bibhutpur India1,904,411
- 265 Malang Indonesia1,899,616
- 266 Kaduna Nigeria1,890,448
- 267 Warsaw Poland1,882,756
- 268 Monrovia1,879,092
- 269 Putian China1,871,858
- 270 Port-au-Prince Haiti1,868,268
- 271 Benin City Nigeria1,845,432
- 272 Isfahan Iran1,844,409
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 Monrovia 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 Monrovia 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