Topics
Sana'a, 
Yemen
Şan'ā'
4,018,856 people lived in Sana'a in 2025. It is the 111th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Yemen, where it is the capital.
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 Sana'a's own can differ widely. What counts as a city here.
In its own language: Şan'ā'.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Sana'a grew
Count 10 people in Sana'a in 1975 and the same count gives 323.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 5.7 million people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes five million people between 2035 and 2040.
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
Sana'a through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sana'a in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Yemen · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 111 cities in Yemen in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there. The ringed dot in colour is Sana'a; 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, Sana'a covered 237 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 54 km² of it. That is 13 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 4 by 4 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.1 times its size, and its people are 32.3 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Yemen
Its share of Yemen
Of every 100 people in Yemen in 2025, 10 lived in Sana'a, which is 4.0 million people.
How to read this: shrink Yemen to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Sana'a; 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
- 107 Sydney Australia4,150,917
- 108 Guadalajara Mexico4,135,440
- 109 Douala Cameroon4,104,516
- 110 Jaipur India4,071,754
- 111 Sana'a4,018,856
- 112 Taiyuan China4,005,816
- 113 Puning China3,989,322
- 114 Barcelona Spain3,982,704
- 115 Houston United States3,955,046
In Yemen, 2025
- 111 Sana'a4,018,856
- 311 Ta'izz1,586,739
- 634 Hodeidah827,012
- 635 Ibb826,974
- 754 Bi'r Rubak712,438
- 1045 'Adan530,573
- 1389 Dhamar406,929
- 1462 Hawrah389,641
- 1886 Yarim304,301
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 Sana'a 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 Sana'a 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