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Mzuzu, 
Malawi
221,840 people lived in Mzuzu in 2025. It is the 2663rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Malawi.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Mzuzu grew
For every 10 people in Mzuzu in 1995, there were 38.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 430,245 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2025 and 2030. The UN first counts it as a city in 1995, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Mzuzu through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Mzuzu in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Malawi · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mzuzu is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Malawi in 2025, 8 in all, led by Lilongwe, 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, Mzuzu covered 47 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 47 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 3.1 times its size, and its people are 3.9 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 Malawi
Its share of Malawi
Of every 1,000 people in Malawi in 2025, 10 lived in Mzuzu, which is 221,840 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Malawi; the coloured squares live in Mzuzu. 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
- 2652 Sambrial Pakistan222,828
- 2657 Toba Tek Singh Pakistan222,349
- 2661 Hossana Ethiopia221,895
- 2662 Sahebganj India221,858
- 2663 Mzuzu221,840
- 2670 Charlotte United States221,000
- 2674 Az Zubayr Iraq220,737
- 2675 Rustenburg South Africa220,723
- 2679 Gwoza Nigeria220,641
In Malawi, 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 Mzuzu are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Mzuzu 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