This statistic shows the biggest cities in Tanzania in 2022. In 2022, approximately 5.38 million people lived in Dar es Salaam, making it the biggest city in Tanzania.

The largest city of Tanzania, Dar es Salam, had a population of around 2.7 million people in 2022. On the shore of Lake Victoria, Mwanza ranked as the second most populated city in the country, with some 437 thousand inhabitants. Zanzibar City, the capital of Zanzibar's archipelago, had around 404 thousand dwellers.

Dar es Salaam was the most populated region in Tanzania as of 2021. Around 5.5 million people lived in the area. The namesake Dar es Salaam city is the capital of the region and Tanzania's largest city. Mwanza followed as second-leading region by number of inhabitants, roughly four million people.

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2025, the country counted over 237.5 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 135.5 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 118.4 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranked seventh, while Mauritius had the highest population density on the whole African continent in 2023. The fastest-growing world region Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad, the population increase peaks at over three percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. African cities on the rise The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. However, African cities are currently growing at larger rates. Indeed, most of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gwagwalada, in Nigeria, and Kabinda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ranked first worldwide. By 2035, instead, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria.

In 2023, Gabon had the highest urbanization rate in Africa, with over 90 percent of the population living in urban areas. Libya and Djibouti followed at around 82 percent and 79 percent, respectively. On the other hand, many countries on the continent had the majority of the population residing in rural areas. As of 2023, urbanization in Malawi, Rwanda, Niger, and Burundi was below 20 percent. A growing urban population On average, the African urbanization rate stood at approximately 45 percent in 2023. The number of people living in urban areas has been growing steadily since 2000 and is forecast to increase further in the coming years. The urbanization process is being particularly rapid in Burundi, Uganda, Niger, and Tanzania. In these countries, the urban population grew by over 4.2 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year. The most populous cities in Africa Africa’s largest city is Lagos in Nigeria, counting around nine million people. It is followed by Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cairo in Egypt, each with over seven million inhabitants. Moreover, other cities on the continent are growing rapidly. The population of Bujumbura in Burundi will increase by 123 percent between 2020 and 2035, registering the highest growth rate on the continent. Other fast-growing cities are Zinder in Niger, Kampala in Uganda, and Kabinda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2020, Dar es Salaam was the region in Tanzania with the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which amounted to roughly 25.3 trillion Tanzanian shillings (TZS), approximately 10.9 billion U.S. dollars. To follow, the Mwanza region recorded a GDP at about 11 trillion TZS (4.7 billion U.S. dollars). By the same year, Tanzania's GDP reached around 64.4 billion U.S. dollars.