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Cities · Republic of the Congo
Pointe-Noire, 
Republic of the Congo
1,662,537 people lived in Pointe-Noire in 2025. It is the 294th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in the Republic of the Congo.
The UN measures every city in the world the same way, by where the buildings are rather than where the boundary runs, so this figure and Pointe-Noire's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Pointe-Noire grew
Count 10 people in Pointe-Noire in 1975 and the same count gives 197.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.8 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2010 and 2015.
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
Pointe-Noire through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Pointe-Noire in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Republic of the Congo · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Pointe-Noire is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of the Republic of the Congo in 2025, 4 in all, led by Brazzaville, 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, Pointe-Noire covered 215 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 59 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 19.7 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 the Republic of the Congo
Its share of the Republic of the Congo
Of every 100 people in the Republic of the Congo in 2025, 26 lived in Pointe-Noire, which is 1.7 million people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in the Republic of the Congo, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Pointe-Noire's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 290 San Antonio United States1,686,163
- 291 Nantong China1,684,417
- 292 Sao Goncalo Brazil1,679,246
- 293 Mosul Iraq1,665,214
- 294 Pointe-Noire1,662,537
- 295 Visakhapatnam India1,641,957
- 296 Boston United States1,639,797
- 297 Ahwaz Iran1,639,321
- 298 Bareilly India1,635,214
In the Republic of the Congo, 2025
- 126 Brazzaville3,656,322
- 294 Pointe-Noire1,662,537
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 Pointe-Noire 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 Pointe-Noire 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