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Ruwa, 
Zimbabwe
185,224 people lived in Ruwa in 2025. It is the 3255th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Zimbabwe.
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 Ruwa grew
Where Ruwa had 10 people in 1990, it had 31.8 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 309,358 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2035 and 2040. The UN first counts it as a city in 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Ruwa through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Ruwa in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Zimbabwe · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Zimbabwe and its 15 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Harare). Ruwa 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, Ruwa covered 67 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 13 km² of it. That is 72 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 9 by 9 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown to 7.1 times its size, and its people are 3.2 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 Zimbabwe
Its share of Zimbabwe
Of every 100 people in Zimbabwe in 2025, 1 lived in Ruwa, which is 185,224 people.
How to read this: shrink Zimbabwe to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Ruwa; 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
- 3238 Bangkinang Indonesia186,431
- 3241 Balcad Somalia186,328
- 3247 Meja Road India186,137
- 3249 Naivasha Kenya185,944
- 3255 Ruwa185,224
- 3258 Biak Kota Indonesia184,918
- 3269 Atakpamé Togo184,404
- 3271 Brikama Gambia184,321
- 3278 Akugba Nigeria183,921
In Zimbabwe, 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 Ruwa are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Ruwa 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