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Sumbawanga, 
Tanzania
181,940 people lived in Sumbawanga in 2025. It is the 3311th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 15th largest in Tanzania.
That figure counts the whole built-up area, not the area Sumbawanga governs, so it may be far from the number the city publishes about itself. How the UN measures a city.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Sumbawanga grew
Count 10 people in Sumbawanga in 1990 and the same count gives 33.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 363,809 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 1990, when it passed 50,000 people.
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
Sumbawanga through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Sumbawanga in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Tanzania · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sumbawanga is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Tanzania in 2025, 45 in all, led by Dar es Salaam, 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, Sumbawanga covered 40 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 8.8 km² of it. That is 48 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1990, its built-up land has grown by 76%, and its people are 3.3 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 Tanzania
Its share of Tanzania
Of every 1,000 people in Tanzania in 2025, 3 lived in Sumbawanga, which is 181,940 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Tanzania; the coloured squares live in Sumbawanga. 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
- 3271 Brikama Gambia184,321
- 3278 Akugba Nigeria183,921
- 3287 Koudougou Burkina Faso183,409
- 3291 Afamolla Bangladesh183,242
- 3311 Sumbawanga181,940
- 3313 Kotli Pakistan181,837
- 3314 Al-Wasitah Egypt181,776
- 3335 Taraz Kazakhstan180,844
- 3348 Beni Muhammadiyat Egypt180,286
In Tanzania, 2025
- 2641 Songea223,567
- 2959 Iringa201,525
- 3014 Tabora198,557
- 3121 Musoma192,622
- 3311 Sumbawanga181,940
- 3485 Bukoba173,889
- 3670 Geita165,000
- 3768 Kahama160,713
- 3895 Katoro155,625
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 Sumbawanga are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1990 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 Sumbawanga 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