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Porto-Novo, 
Benin
818,617 people lived in Porto-Novo in 2025. It is the 642nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 2nd largest in Benin, where it is the capital.
This is the UN's built-up area, drawn from satellite pictures and census maps rather than from the city limits, and the two can be a long way apart. The rule behind it.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Porto-Novo grew
For every 10 people in Porto-Novo in 1975, there were 45 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 1.2 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes a million people between 2035 and 2040.
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
Porto-Novo through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Porto-Novo in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Benin · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Benin and its 29 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Cotonou). Porto-Novo 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, Porto-Novo covered 147 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 40 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.9 times its size, and its people are 4.5 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 Benin
Its share of Benin
Of every 100 people in Benin in 2025, 6 lived in Porto-Novo, which is 818,617 people.
How to read this: shrink Benin to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Porto-Novo; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 638 Ipoh Malaysia823,097
- 639 Huangshi China821,445
- 640 Vellore India820,103
- 641 Kolhapur India819,671
- 642 Porto-Novo818,617
- 643 Okayama Japan817,266
- 644 Qom Iran815,416
- 645 Zakho Iraq814,526
- 646 Munger India814,325
In Benin, 2025
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Porto-Novo 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 Porto-Novo 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