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Wad Madanī, 
Sudan
403,988 people lived in Wad Madanī in 2025. It is the 1400th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in Sudan.
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 Wad Madanī grew
Where Wad Madanī had 10 people in 1975, it had 30.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 565,287 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: one column every five years, 1975 to 2050; its height is the number of people. Hatched columns are the UN's projection. The thin strip beneath says how sure the UN is of each figure: the stronger the colour, the surer. A blank means the place was not on the UN's list of cities that year.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Wad Madanī through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Wad Madanī in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Sudan · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Sudan and its 105 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Khartoum). Wad Madanī 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, Wad Madanī covered 63 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 16 km² of it. That is 38 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 times its size, and its people are 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 Sudan
Its share of Sudan
Of every 1,000 people in Sudan in 2025, 8 lived in Wad Madanī, which is 403,988 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Sudan, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Wad Madanī's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1396 Hebron Palestine405,079
- 1397 North Richland Hills United States404,680
- 1398 Sariwon North Korea404,672
- 1399 Point Cook Australia404,501
- 1400 Wad Madanī403,988
- 1401 Asaba Nigeria403,859
- 1402 Joharabad Pakistan403,179
- 1403 Tumakuru India403,109
- 1404 Bharatpur India402,987
In Sudan, 2025
- 1030 Buram537,169
- 1074 Port Sudan517,023
- 1140 Timerein486,586
- 1297 Kosti431,504
- 1400 Wad Madanī403,988
- 1457 Kassala390,525
- 1491 Kas381,286
- 1808 Al-Qadarif317,258
- 2087 Saraf `Umrah278,467
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 Wad Madanī 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 Wad Madanī 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