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Port Harcourt, 
Nigeria
2,341,445 people lived in Port Harcourt in 2025. It is the 211th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 6th largest in Nigeria.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Port Harcourt governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Port Harcourt grew
For every 10 people in Port Harcourt in 1975, there were 84.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 3.2 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 2005 and 2010.
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
Port Harcourt through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Port Harcourt in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Port Harcourt is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Nigeria in 2025, 457 in all, led by Lagos, 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, Port Harcourt covered 316 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 94 km² of it. That is 40 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4 times its size, and its people are 8.4 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 10 lived in Port Harcourt, which is 2.3 million people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Nigeria; the coloured squares live in Port Harcourt. 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
- 207 Rome Italy2,376,474
- 208 Almaty Kazakhstan2,367,611
- 209 Denpasar Indonesia2,352,734
- 210 Prayagraj India2,347,869
- 211 Port Harcourt2,341,445
- 212 Dammam Saudi Arabia2,335,647
- 213 Daegu South Korea2,334,446
- 214 Goiânia Brazil2,320,596
- 215 Tangshan China2,286,763
In Nigeria, 2025
- 69 Onitsha5,627,706
- 89 Kano4,840,280
- 121 Owerri3,833,343
- 123 Ibadan3,720,721
- 211 Port Harcourt2,341,445
- 266 Kaduna1,890,448
- 271 Benin City1,845,432
- 305 Warri1,607,702
- 316 Uyo1,567,115
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 Port Harcourt 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 Port Harcourt 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