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Shufune, 
Ethiopia
158,225 people lived in Shufune in 2025. It is the 3823rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 39th 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 Shufune grew
For every 10 people in Shufune in 2000, there were 30.9 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 361,502 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 2000, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Shufune through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Shufune in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Ethiopia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 259 cities in Ethiopia in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Addis Ababa. The ringed dot in colour is Shufune; 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, Shufune covered 26 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 5.3 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 2005, its built-up land has grown to 3.8 times its size, and its people are 2.7 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 Ethiopia
Its share of Ethiopia
Of every 1,000 people in Ethiopia in 2025, 1 lived in Shufune, which is 158,225 people.
How to read this: shrink Ethiopia to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Shufune; 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
- 3796 Masaka Uganda159,564
- 3800 Ash Shajarah Yemen159,506
- 3815 San José del Cabo Mexico158,693
- 3817 Ambatolahy II Madagascar158,588
- 3823 Shufune158,225
- 3825 Musumba Democratic Republic of the Congo158,159
- 3846 ad-Damer Sudan157,497
- 3864 Debre Birhan156,788
- 3870 Kafr Saqr Egypt156,498
In Ethiopia, 2025
- 2920 Alaba Kulito204,316
- 3568 Kefole169,474
- 3575 Aleta Wendo169,004
- 3695 Durame163,896
- 3823 Shufune158,225
- 3864 Debre Birhan156,788
- 3914 Sodo154,912
- 4306 Leku141,486
- 4681 Areka130,386
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 Shufune are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2000 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 Shufune 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