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Sousse, 
Tunisia
495,877 people lived in Sousse in 2025. It is the 1116th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 3rd largest in Tunisia.
Like every city on this site, Sousse is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Sousse grew
For every 10 people in Sousse in 1975, there were 65.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 548,224 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2000 and 2005.
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
Sousse through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sousse in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tunisia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sousse is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Tunisia in 2025, 24 in all, led by Tunis, 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, Sousse covered 125 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 30 km² of it. That is 60 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 4.1 times its size, and its people are 6.5 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 Tunisia
Its share of Tunisia
Of every 100 people in Tunisia in 2025, 4 lived in Sousse, which is 495,877 people.
How to read this: 100 squares stand for everyone in Tunisia, one square for every 100th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Sousse's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1112 Balung Indonesia497,754
- 1113 Khamis Mushayt Saudi Arabia497,246
- 1114 Yangjiang China496,608
- 1115 Bloemfontein South Africa496,295
- 1116 Sousse495,877
- 1117 Huludao China495,819
- 1118 Osh Kyrgyzstan495,400
- 1119 Baishan China495,030
- 1120 Fatehpur India494,897
In Tunisia, 2025
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 Sousse 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 Sousse 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