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Cities · Mauritania · capital
Nouakchott, 
Mauritania
1,561,617 people lived in Nouakchott in 2025. It is the 319th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Mauritania, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Nouakchott 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 Nouakchott grew
Count 10 people in Nouakchott in 1980 and the same count gives 147.4 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.6 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015. 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
Nouakchott through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Nouakchott 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. Nouakchott 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, Nouakchott covered 188 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 57 km² of it. That is 36 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 8.1 times its size, and its people are 14.7 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 Mauritania
Its share of Mauritania
Of every 100 people in Mauritania in 2025, 29 lived in Nouakchott, which is 1.6 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Mauritania, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Nouakchott's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 315 Datong China1,573,531
- 316 Uyo Nigeria1,567,115
- 317 Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar India1,567,020
- 318 Cirebon Indonesia1,566,821
- 319 Nouakchott1,561,617
- 320 Tijuana Mexico1,557,695
- 321 Gwalior India1,554,246
- 322 Davao City Philippines1,546,026
- 323 Vasai-Virar India1,542,177
In Mauritania, 2025
- 319 Nouakchott1,561,617
- 3375 Nouadhibou179,362
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 Nouakchott 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 Nouakchott 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