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Xai-Xai, 
Mozambique
208,703 people lived in Xai-Xai in 2025. It is the 2857th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 10th largest in Mozambique.
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 Xai-Xai grew
Where Xai-Xai had 10 people in 1975, it had 36.5 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 324,946 people in 2050. On the UN's projection it passes 250,000 people between 2030 and 2035.
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
Xai-Xai through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Xai-Xai in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Mozambique · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Mozambique and its 48 cities in 2025, each a dot whose area is its number of people (the largest is Maputo). Xai-Xai 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, Xai-Xai covered 53 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 13 km² of it. That is 62 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 6.2 times its size, and its people are 3.6 times as many.
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 100 people in Mozambique
Its share of Mozambique
Of every 1,000 people in Mozambique in 2025, 6 lived in Xai-Xai, which is 208,703 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Mozambique; the coloured squares live in Xai-Xai. 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
- 2843 Depalpur Pakistan209,417
- 2844 Al Jahra Kuwait209,224
- 2845 Maner India209,055
- 2846 Madhuban India209,032
- 2857 Xai-Xai208,703
- 2859 `Ar`ar Saudi Arabia208,320
- 2861 Uromi Nigeria208,157
- 2864 Kulaura Bangladesh208,075
- 2869 Mellit Sudan207,693
In Mozambique, 2025
- 1334 Tete421,174
- 1975 Lichinga294,317
- 2122 Nacala273,732
- 2232 Pemba261,380
- 2857 Xai-Xai208,703
- 3134 Mocuba191,635
- 4324 Gurue141,061
- 6225 Cuamba99,179
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 Xai-Xai 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 Xai-Xai 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