Topics
Sokoto, 
Nigeria
903,238 people lived in Sokoto in 2025. It is the 572nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 20th largest in Nigeria.
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 Sokoto grew
Count 10 people in Sokoto in 1975 and the same count gives 41.3 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 2030 and 2035.
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
Sokoto through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sokoto in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Nigeria and its 457 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Lagos). Sokoto 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, Sokoto covered 112 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 31 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.4 times its size, and its people are 4.1 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 4 lived in Sokoto, which is 903,238 people.
How to read this: shrink Nigeria to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Sokoto; 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
- 568 Weifang China908,584
- 569 Sulaymaniyah Iraq907,815
- 570 Dusseldorf Germany907,386
- 571 Tbilisi Georgia906,746
- 572 Sokoto903,238
- 573 Frankfurt Germany900,483
- 574 Kisangani Democratic Republic of the Congo900,330
- 575 Odesa Ukraine899,157
- 576 Stuttgart Germany899,103
In Nigeria, 2025
- 464 Enugu1,115,303
- 503 Otite1,020,218
- 561 Jos923,652
- 565 Ikorodu916,166
- 572 Sokoto903,238
- 622 Umuahia843,245
- 633 Nsukka830,196
- 659 Abeokuta801,826
- 668 Oyo793,241
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 Sokoto 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 Sokoto 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