Topics
Yola, 
Nigeria
758,153 people lived in Yola in 2025. It is the 705th largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 25th largest in Nigeria.
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 Yola grew
Count 10 people in Yola in 1975 and the same count gives 35.1 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 974,270 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 1975 and 1980.
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
Yola through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Yola in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Nigeria · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 457 cities in Nigeria in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Lagos. The ringed dot in colour is Yola; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Yola covered 118 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 26 km² of it. That is 35 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 3.3 times its size, and its people are 3.5 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 3 lived in Yola, which is 758,153 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares stand for everyone in Nigeria, one square for every 1,000th person. Count the coloured ones and you have Yola's share; the grey remainder live somewhere else in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 701 Yangzhou China759,812
- 702 Mudanjiang China758,800
- 703 Agartala India758,699
- 704 Kalemie Democratic Republic of the Congo758,379
- 705 Yola758,153
- 706 Taxila Pakistan757,451
- 707 Xinyu China756,365
- 708 Bonn Germany756,044
- 709 Rajshahi Bangladesh755,347
In Nigeria, 2025
- 622 Umuahia843,245
- 633 Nsukka830,196
- 659 Abeokuta801,826
- 668 Oyo793,241
- 705 Yola758,153
- 753 Zaria712,688
- 766 Akure700,747
- 807 Calabar673,427
- 841 Bauchi642,082
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 Yola 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 Yola 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