Tshimbulu, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Count 10 people in Tshimbulu in 1995 and the same count gives 28.8 in 2025.

On the UN's projection it will have 332,079 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 1995, 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.

How to read this: the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its 223 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Kinshasa). Tshimbulu is ringed, in colour; the other cities are grey. Neighbouring countries are outlines.

In 2025, Tshimbulu covered 13 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 1.6 km² of it. That is 11 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 3 by 3 metres. Since 2010, its built-up land has grown by 60%, and its people have grown by 64%.

How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.

Of every 1,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2025, 1 lived in Tshimbulu, which is 149,595 people.

How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Tshimbulu's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.

In the world, 2025

1. 3917 Thatta Pakistan154,717
2. 3995 Likuni Malawi151,695
3. 4014 Tanjung Pinang Indonesia150,872
4. 4034 Mawza` Yemen150,293
5. 4052 Tshimbulu149,595
6. 4071 Bairgachhi India148,986
7. 4078 Ongata Rongai Kenya148,823
8. 4091 Bori Nigeria148,370
9. 4103 Suncheon-si South Korea147,975

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2025

1. 3459 Kitenge174,943
2. 3593 Mukubu168,033
3. 3659 Sandoa165,522
4. 3825 Musumba158,159
5. 4052 Tshimbulu149,595
6. 4117 Mukanga147,526
7. 4439 Lwebo137,354
8. 4501 Luiza135,439
9. 5978 Busisi103,613

How to read this: the figure in front of a name is where that city stands among the 12,138 cities the UN counted in 2025, and each bar is its people, on one scale per list. Numbers are missing where a city has fewer than 300,000 people and so has no page of its own.

Democratic Republic of the Congo · All the world's cities

The figures for Tshimbulu are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1995 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 Tshimbulu 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