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Windhoek, 
Namibia
409,758 people lived in Windhoek in 2025. It is the 1377th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Namibia, where it is the capital.
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 Windhoek grew
Where Windhoek had 10 people in 1980, it had 77 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 552,444 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2005 and 2010. The UN first counts it as a city in 1980, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: each column is one of the UN's five-yearly estimates, 1975 through 2050, and taller means more people. Where a column is hatched the year has not happened yet. The strip under the columns is the UN's own confidence in each figure, palest where it is least sure; where it is blank the city was not on the list at all.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Windhoek through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Windhoek in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Namibia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Windhoek is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Namibia in 2025, 4 in all, 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, Windhoek covered 72 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 19 km² of it. That is 47 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 7 by 7 metres. Since 1980, its built-up land has grown to 6.9 times its size, and its people are 7.7 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 Namibia
Its share of Namibia
Of every 100 people in Namibia in 2025, 13 lived in Windhoek, which is 409,758 people.
How to read this: 100 squares, one for every 100th person in Namibia; the coloured squares live in Windhoek. 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
- 1373 Albuquerque United States410,810
- 1374 Kushtia Bangladesh410,514
- 1375 Kongolo Democratic Republic of the Congo410,371
- 1376 Huangyan District China410,213
- 1377 Windhoek409,758
- 1378 Nganjuk Indonesia409,447
- 1379 Mazatlán Mexico409,143
- 1380 Dongtai China409,015
- 1381 Uíge Angola408,927
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 Windhoek are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1980 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 Windhoek 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