Topics
Shashamane, 
Ethiopia
452,945 people lived in Shashamane in 2025. It is the 1230th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 5th largest in Ethiopia.
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 Shashamane grew
Count 10 people in Shashamane in 1980 and the same count gives 52.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 738,635 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Shashamane through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Shashamane in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Shashamane is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Ethiopia in 2025, 259 in all, led by Addis Ababa, 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, Shashamane covered 43 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 11 km² of it. That is 24 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 5 by 5 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 4.9 times its size, and its people are 5.2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 3 lived in Shashamane, which is 452,945 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Ethiopia; the coloured squares live in Shashamane. 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
- 1226 Surrey Canada454,230
- 1227 Nantes France453,523
- 1228 Chimoio Mozambique453,521
- 1229 Catania Italy453,376
- 1230 Shashamane452,945
- 1231 Maturin Venezuela452,835
- 1232 Jiangyang China452,500
- 1233 Polokwane South Africa451,786
- 1234 Haripur Pakistan451,578
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 59 Addis Ababa6,705,705
- 937 Adama584,854
- 1107 Bahir Dar498,735
- 1146 Dire Dawa483,674
- 1230 Shashamane452,945
- 1250 Hawassa444,909
- 1257 Bishoftu442,776
- 1327 Jijiga422,225
- 1448 Gonder392,767
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 Shashamane are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Shashamane 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