Topics
Zaria, 
Nigeria
712,688 people lived in Zaria in 2025. It is the 753rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 26th largest in Nigeria.
Like every city on this site, Zaria is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Zaria grew
Count 10 people in Zaria in 1975 and the same count gives 36.2 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 966,000 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
Zaria through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Zaria 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 Zaria; 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, Zaria covered 103 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 28 km² of it. That is 40 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 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 Nigeria
Its share of Nigeria
Of every 1,000 people in Nigeria in 2025, 3 lived in Zaria, which is 712,688 people.
How to read this: 1,000 squares, one for every 1,000th person in Nigeria; the coloured squares live in Zaria. 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
- 749 Makhachkala Russia717,618
- 750 Iloilo City Philippines717,038
- 751 Jepara Indonesia714,514
- 752 Luena Angola714,289
- 753 Zaria712,688
- 754 Bi'r Rubak Yemen712,438
- 755 Xiaogan China711,726
- 756 Mirzapur India710,567
- 757 Panipat India710,363
In Nigeria, 2025
- 633 Nsukka830,196
- 659 Abeokuta801,826
- 668 Oyo793,241
- 705 Yola758,153
- 753 Zaria712,688
- 766 Akure700,747
- 807 Calabar673,427
- 841 Bauchi642,082
- 862 Lokoja629,547
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 Zaria 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 Zaria 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