Topics
Thiès, 
Senegal
521,678 people lived in Thiès in 2025. It is the 1059th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 4th largest in Senegal.
Like every city on this site, Thiès 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 Thiès grew
For every 10 people in Thiès in 1975, there were 32.6 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 865,546 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1995 and 2000.
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
Thiès through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Thiès in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Senegal · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Senegal and its 26 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Dakar). Thiès 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, Thiès covered 61 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 31 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 2.8 times its size, 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 Senegal
Its share of Senegal
Of every 100 people in Senegal in 2025, 3 lived in Thiès, which is 521,678 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Senegal; the coloured squares live in Thiès. 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
- 1055 Jember Indonesia522,844
- 1056 Masetjhaba View South Africa522,402
- 1057 Málaga Spain521,854
- 1058 Edinburgh United Kingdom521,784
- 1059 Thiès521,678
- 1060 Shabqadar Pakistan521,259
- 1061 Shahkot Pakistan520,664
- 1062 Liling China520,239
- 1063 Constantine Algeria519,932
In Senegal, 2025
- 120 Dakar3,852,475
- 446 Touba1,151,552
- 992 M'bour553,170
- 1059 Thiès521,678
- 1365 Kaolack412,347
- 2057 Ziguinchor282,751
- 2153 Saint-Louis270,413
- 2430 Tambacounda241,254
- 2461 Diourbel237,795
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 Thiès 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 Thiès 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