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Mwanza, 
Tanzania
954,104 people lived in Mwanza in 2025. It is the 544th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Tanzania.
Like every city on this site, Mwanza 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 Mwanza grew
Where Mwanza had 10 people in 1980, it had 80.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.6 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, 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
Mwanza through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mwanza in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mwanza is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Tanzania in 2025, 45 in all, led by Dar es Salaam, 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, Mwanza covered 179 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 40 km² of it. That is 42 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 3.9 times its size, and its people are 8.1 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 Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 100 people in Tanzania in 2025, 1 lived in Mwanza, which is 954,104 people.
How to read this: shrink Tanzania to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Mwanza; 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
- 540 Lilongwe Malawi961,399
- 541 San Miguel de Tucumán Argentina959,565
- 542 Konya Türkiye959,484
- 543 Samara Russia955,599
- 544 Mwanza954,104
- 545 Dagupan [Lingayen] Philippines953,092
- 546 Faizabad India952,074
- 547 Darbhanga India950,875
- 548 Nyala Sudan950,803
In Tanzania, 2025
- 42 Dar es Salaam7,795,114
- 538 Zanzibar City966,642
- 544 Mwanza954,104
- 665 Arusha795,744
- 1025 Mbeya539,248
- 1205 Morogoro461,634
- 1677 Kigoma340,483
- 1861 Moshi309,202
- 1956 Tanga296,202
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 Mwanza are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Mwanza 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