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Pemba, 
Mozambique
261,380 people lived in Pemba in 2025. It is the 2232nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 9th largest in Mozambique.
Like every city on this site, Pemba 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 Pemba grew
Count 10 people in Pemba in 1995 and the same count gives 37.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 399,397 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2020 and 2025. 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
Pemba through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Pemba in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mozambique · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 48 cities in Mozambique in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Maputo. The ringed dot in colour is Pemba; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Pemba covered 70 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 43 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1995, its built-up land has grown to 2.3 times its size, and its people are 3.7 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 1,000 people in Mozambique in 2025, 7 lived in Pemba, which is 261,380 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Mozambique; the coloured squares live in Pemba. 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
- 2226 Ambur India261,614
- 2227 Jinja Uganda261,604
- 2228 Moirabari India261,593
- 2229 Hakodate Japan261,557
- 2232 Pemba261,380
- 2233 Agbara Nigeria261,298
- 2234 Areraj India261,142
- 2235 Sidi Bel Abbes Algeria261,103
- 2238 The Woodlands United States260,732
In Mozambique, 2025
- 1271 Quelimane438,554
- 1334 Tete421,174
- 1975 Lichinga294,317
- 2122 Nacala273,732
- 2232 Pemba261,380
- 2857 Xai-Xai208,703
- 3134 Mocuba191,635
- 4324 Gurue141,061
- 6225 Cuamba99,179
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 Pemba 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 Pemba 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