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Mtwara, 
Tanzania
128,086 people lived in Mtwara in 2025. It is the 4771st largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 23rd largest in Tanzania.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Mtwara 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 Mtwara grew
For every 10 people in Mtwara in 1990, there were 24.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 313,838 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2040 and 2045. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Mtwara through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mtwara in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Tanzania and its 45 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Dar es Salaam). Mtwara 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, Mtwara covered 37 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.9 km² of it. That is 54 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 3.5 times its size, and its people are 2.4 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 Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 1,000 people in Tanzania in 2025, 2 lived in Mtwara, which is 128,086 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Tanzania, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Mtwara's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 4657 Kayanza Burundi131,192
- 4681 Areka Ethiopia130,386
- 4695 Sandila India130,012
- 4719 Domeez Iraq129,444
- 4771 Mtwara128,086
- 4839 Rihab Yemen126,332
- 4847 Chauri Chaura India126,176
- 4864 Delingat Egypt125,765
- 4901 Hisor Tajikistan125,054
In Tanzania, 2025
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 Mtwara are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Mtwara 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