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Nampula, 
Mozambique
885,780 people lived in Nampula in 2025. It is the 584th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Mozambique.
Like every city on this site, Nampula 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 Nampula grew
For every 10 people in Nampula in 1975, there were 77.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2030 and 2035.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Nampula through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nampula in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mozambique · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mozambique and its 48 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Maputo). Nampula 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, Nampula covered 124 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 32 km² of it. That is 36 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.5 times its size, and its people are 7.8 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 Mozambique
Its share of Mozambique
Of every 100 people in Mozambique in 2025, 2 lived in Nampula, which is 885,780 people.
How to read this: shrink Mozambique to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Nampula; 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
- 580 Qiqihar China892,744
- 581 Marseille France891,463
- 582 Sitamarhi India889,696
- 583 The Hague Netherlands886,444
- 584 Nampula885,780
- 585 Kayseri Türkiye882,238
- 586 Bikaner India882,222
- 587 Huadu China882,089
- 588 Ulsan South Korea881,858
In Mozambique, 2025
- 154 Maputo3,166,328
- 584 Nampula885,780
- 892 Beira608,097
- 1228 Chimoio453,521
- 1271 Quelimane438,554
- 1334 Tete421,174
- 1975 Lichinga294,317
- 2122 Nacala273,732
- 2232 Pemba261,380
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Nampula 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 Nampula 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