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Nouadhibou, 
Mauritania
179,362 people lived in Nouadhibou in 2025. It is the 3375th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Mauritania.
Like every city on this site, Nouadhibou 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 Nouadhibou grew
For every 10 people in Nouadhibou in 1995, there were 32.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 328,505 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2035 and 2040. 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: 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
Nouadhibou through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nouadhibou in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mauritania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mauritania and its 6 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Nouakchott). Nouadhibou 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, Nouadhibou covered 47 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 6.6 km² of it. That is 37 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 2000, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 2.8 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 Mauritania
Its share of Mauritania
Of every 100 people in Mauritania in 2025, 3 lived in Nouadhibou, which is 179,362 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Mauritania; the coloured squares live in Nouadhibou. 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
- 3314 Al-Wasitah Egypt181,776
- 3335 Taraz Kazakhstan180,844
- 3348 Beni Muhammadiyat Egypt180,286
- 3355 Sinkāt Sudan180,082
- 3375 Nouadhibou179,362
- 3383 Bahubal Bangladesh178,981
- 3400 Oghi Pakistan177,887
- 3406 Dearborn Heights United States177,423
- 3415 Handia India176,779
In Mauritania, 2025
- 319 Nouakchott1,561,617
- 3375 Nouadhibou179,362
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 Nouadhibou 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 Nouadhibou 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