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Nakuru, 
Kenya
574,091 people lived in Nakuru in 2025. It is the 955th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Kenya.
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 Nakuru grew
For every 10 people in Nakuru in 1980, there were 110.7 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 862,724 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005. 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: 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
Nakuru through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nakuru in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Kenya · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nakuru is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Kenya in 2025, 50 in all, led by Nairobi, 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, Nakuru covered 94 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 3.7 times its size, and its people are 11.1 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 Kenya
Its share of Kenya
Of every 1,000 people in Kenya in 2025, 10 lived in Nakuru, which is 574,091 people.
How to read this: shrink Kenya to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Nakuru; 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
- 951 Beihai China577,338
- 952 Binzhou China576,823
- 953 Ballia India576,284
- 954 Valledupar Colombia574,824
- 955 Nakuru574,091
- 956 Dera Ghazi Khan Pakistan572,505
- 957 Caleta Sanitaria Peru572,154
- 958 Alwar India571,972
- 959 Jhang Pakistan571,359
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 Nakuru 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 Nakuru 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