Lagos, in Nigeria, ranked as the most populated city in Africa as of 2024, with an estimated population of roughly nine million inhabitants living in the city proper. Kinshasa, in Congo, and Cairo, in Egypt, followed with some 7.8 million and 7.7 million dwellers. Among the 15 largest cities in the continent, another two, Kano, and Ibadan, were located in Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa. Population density trends in Africa As of 2022, Africa exhibited a population density of 48.3 individuals per square kilometer. At the beginning of 2000, the population density across the continent has experienced a consistent annual increment. Projections indicated that the average population residing within each square kilometer would rise to approximately 54 by the year 2027. Moreover, Mauritius stood out as the African nation with the most elevated population density, exceeding 640 individuals per square kilometre. Mauritius possesses one of the most compact territories on the continent, a factor that significantly influences its high population density. Urbanization dynamics in Africa The urbanization rate in Africa was anticipated to reach close to 44 percent in 2021. Urbanization across the continent has consistently risen since 2000, with urban areas accommodating 35 percent of the total population. This trajectory is projected to continue its ascent in the years ahead. Nevertheless, the distribution between rural and urban populations shows remarkable diversity throughout the continent. In 2021, Gabon and Libya stood out as Africa’s most urbanized nations, each surpassing 80 percent urbanization. In 2023, Africa's population was estimated to expand by 2.35 percent compared to the preceding year. Since 2000, the population growth rate across the continent has consistently exceeded 2.45 percent, reaching its pinnacle at 2.59 percent between 2012 and 2013. Although the growth rate has experienced a deceleration, Africa's population will persistently grow significantly in the forthcoming years.

As of 2022, Cairo was the most populated city in the North African region with over 7.7 million inhabitants. It was followed by Alexandria and Casablanca, with 3.1 million and 2.4 million people, respectively. Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa.

Population in largest city in South Africa was reported at 6324351 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

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.

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in South Africa was reported at 14.26 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

South Africa is the sixth African country with the largest population, counting approximately 60.5 million individuals as of 2021. In 2023, the largest city in South Africa was Cape Town. The capital of Western Cape counted 3.4 million inhabitants, whereas South Africa's second largest city was Durban (eThekwini Municipality), with 3.1 million inhabitants. Note that when observing the number of inhabitants by municipality, Johannesburg is counted as largest city/municipality of South Africa.

From four provinces to nine provinces

Before Nelson Mandela became president in 1994, the country had four provinces, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal and 10 “homelands” (also called Bantustans). The four larger regions were for the white population while the homelands for its black population. This system was dismantled following the new constitution of South Africa in 1996 and reorganized into nine provinces. Currently, Gauteng is the most populated province with around 15.9 million people residing there, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 11.68 million inhabiting the province. As of 2022, Black African individuals were almost 81 percent of the total population in the country, while colored citizens followed amounting to around 5.34 million.

A diverse population

Although the majority of South Africans are identified as Black, the country’s population is far from homogenous, with different ethnic groups usually residing in the different “homelands”. This can be recognizable through the various languages used to communicate between the household members and externally. IsiZulu was the most common language of the nation with around a quarter of the population using it in- and outside of households. IsiXhosa and Afrikaans ranked second and third with roughly 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 26.327 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 26.291 % for 2016. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 23.218 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 26.327 % in 2017 and a record low of 18.806 % in 1991. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted Average;

South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data was reported at 9,822,625.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 9,615,976.000 Person for 2016. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 3,628,124.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 9,822,625.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 2,136,849.000 Person in 1960. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2024, the country counted over 232.6 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 132 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 116 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranks seventh, while Mauritius has the highest population density on the whole African continent. 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.

All cities with a population > 1000 or seats of adm div (ca 80.000)Sources and ContributionsSources : GeoNames is aggregating over hundred different data sources. Ambassadors : GeoNames Ambassadors help in many countries. Wiki : A wiki allows to view the data and quickly fix error and add missing places. Donations and Sponsoring : Costs for running GeoNames are covered by donations and sponsoring.Enrichment:add country name

City population size is a crucial measure when trying to understand urban life. Many socio-economic indicators scale superlinearly with city size, whilst some infrastructure indicators scale sublinearly with city size. However, the impact of size also extends beyond the city’s limits. Here, we analyse the scaling behaviour of cities beyond their boundaries by considering the emergence and growth of nearby cities. Based on an urban network from African continental cities, we construct an algorithm to create the region of influence of cities. The number of cities and the population within a region of influence are then analysed in the context of urban scaling. Our results are compared against a random permutation of the network, showing that the observed scaling power of cities to enhance the emergence and growth of cities is not the result of randomness. By altering the radius of influence of cities, we observe three regimes. Large cities tend to be surrounded by many small towns for small distances. For medium distances (above 114 km), large cities are surrounded by many other cities containing large populations. Large cities boost urban emergence and growth (even more than 190 km away), but their scaling power decays with distance.

This horizontal bar chart displays urban population (people) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Northern Africa. The data is about countries.

This horizontal bar chart displays population (people) by continent using the aggregation sum in Southern Africa. The data is about cities.

The West Africa Coastal Vulnerability Mapping: Population Projections, 2030 and 2050 data set is based on an unreleased working version of the Gridded Population of the World (GPW), Version 4, year 2010 population count raster but at a coarser 5 arc-minute resolution. Bryan Jones of Baruch College produced country-level projections based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 4 (SSP4). SSP4 reflects a divided world where cities that have relatively high standards of living, are attractive to internal and international migrants. In low income countries, rapidly growing rural populations live on shrinking areas of arable land due to both high population pressure and expansion of large-scale mechanized farming by international agricultural firms. This pressure induces large migration flow to the cities, contributing to fast urbanization, although urban areas do not provide many opportUnities for the poor and there is a massive expansion of slums and squatter settlements. This scenario may not be the most likely for the West Africa region, but it has internal coherence and is at least plausible.

This horizontal bar chart displays rural population (people) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Northern Africa. The data is about countries.

Nigeria is the African country with the largest population, counting over 230 million people. As of 2024, the largest city in Nigeria was Lagos, which is also the largest city in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of population size. The city counts more than nine million inhabitants, whereas Kano, the second most populous city, registers around 3.6 million inhabitants. Lagos is the main financial, cultural, and educational center in the country. Where Africa’s urban population is booming The metropolitan area of Lagos is also among the largest urban agglomerations in the world. Besides Lagos, another most populated citiy in Africa is Cairo, in Egypt. However, Africa’s urban population is booming in other relatively smaller cities. For instance, the population of Bujumbura, in Burundi, could grow by 123 percent between 2020 and 2035, making it the fastest growing city in Africa and likely in the world. Similarly, Zinder, in Niger, could reach over one million inhabitants by 2035, the second fastest growing city. Demographic urban shift More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. In the next decades, this will increase, especially in Africa and Asia. In 2020, over 80 percent of the population in Northern America was living in urban areas, the highest share in the world. In Africa, the degree of urbanization was about 40 percent, the lowest among all continents. Meeting the needs of a fast-growing population can be a challenge, especially in low-income countries. Therefore, there will be a growing necessity to implement policies to sustainably improve people’s lives in rural and urban areas.

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.

Abstract

The World Values Survey aims to attain a broad understanding of socio-political trends (i.e. perceptions, behaviour and expectations) among adults across the world.

Geographic coverage

National The sample was distributed as follows: 60% metropolitan (large cities with populations of 250 000+); 40% non-metropolitan (including cities, large towns, small towns, villages and rural areas)

Analysis unit

Individual

Universe

The sample included adults 16 years+ in South Africa

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample had to be representative of urban as well as rural populations. Roughly the distribution was as follows: - South Africa: 60% metropolitan (large cities with populations of 250 000+); 40% non-metropolitan (including cities, large towns, small towns, villages and rural areas).

A standard form of sampling instructions was sent to each agency to ensure uniformity in the sampling procedure. Markinor stratified the samples for each country by region, sex and community size. To this end, statistics and figures that were supplied to us by the agencies were used. However, we requested the agencies to revise these where necessary or where alternatives would be more effective. The agencies then supplied the street names for the urban starting points, and made suggestions for sampling procedures in rural areas where neither maps nor street names were available. From sample-point level, the respondent selection was done randomly according to a selection grid used by Markinor (the first two pages of the master questionnaire).

Substitution was permitted after three unsuccessful calls. Six interviews were conducted at each sample point. The male/female split was 50/50. The urban sample included all community sizes greater than 500 and the rural sample all community sizes less than 500. This is the definition of urban and rural used in South Africa.

Remarks about sampling: -Final numbers of clusters or sampling points: 500 -Sample unit from office sampling: Street Names

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The WVS questionnaire was translated from the English questionnaire by a specialist translator The translated questionnaire was pre-tested. The pre-tests were part of the general pilots. In total 20 pilots were conducted. The English questionnaire from the University of Michigan was used to make the WVS. Extra questions were added at the end of the questionnaire. Also, country specific questions were included at the end of the questionnaire, just before the demographics.The sample was designed to be representative of the entire adult population, i.e. 18 years and older, of your country. The lower age cut-off for the sample was 16 and there was not any upper age cut-off for the sample.

Cleaning operations

Some measures of coding reliability were employed. Each questionnaire is coded against the coding frame. A minimum of 10% of each coders work is checked to ensure consistency in interpretation. If any discrepancies in interpretation are World Values Survey (1999-2004) - South Africa 2001 v.2015.04.18 discovered, a 100% check is carried out on that particular coders work. Errors were corrected individually and automatically.

Sampling error estimates

The error margins for this survey can be calculated by taking the following factors into account: - all samples were random (as opposed to quota-controlled) - the sample size per country (or segment being analysed) - the substitution rate per country (or segment being analysed) - the rates were recorded on CARD 1; col. 805 of the questionnaire. From the substitution rate, the response rate can be calculated.

This horizontal bar chart displays male population (people) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Africa. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

Abstract

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) carried out the Migration and Remittances Survey in South Africa for the World Bank in collaboration with the African Development Bank. The primary mandate of the HSRC in this project was to come up with a migration database that includes both immigrants and emigrants. The specific activities included: · A household survey with a view of producing a detailed demographic/economic database of immigrants, emigrants and non migrants · The collation and preparation of a data set based on the survey · The production of basic primary statistics for the analysis of migration and remittance behaviour in South Africa.

Like many other African countries, South Africa lacks reliable census or other data on migrants (immigrants and emigrants), and on flows of resources that accompanies movement of people. This is so because a large proportion of African immigrants are in the country undocumented. A special effort was therefore made to design a household survey that would cover sufficient numbers and proportions of immigrants, and still conform to the principles of probability sampling. The approach that was followed gives a representative picture of migration in 2 provinces, Limpopo and Gauteng, which should be reflective of migration behaviour and its impacts in South Africa.

Geographic coverage

Two provinces: Gauteng and Limpopo

Limpopo is the main corridor for migration from African countries to the north of South Africa while Gauteng is the main port of entry as it has the largest airport in Africa. Gauteng is a destination for internal and international migrants because it has three large metropolitan cities with a great economic potential and reputation for offering employment, accommodations and access to many different opportunities within a distance of 56 km. These two provinces therefore were expected to accommodate most African migrants in South Africa, co-existing with a large host population.

Analysis unit

• Household
• Individual

Universe

The target group consists of households in all communities. The survey will be conducted among metro and non-metro households. Non-metro households include those in: - small towns, - secondary cities, - peri-urban settlements and - deep rural areas. From each selected household, one adult respondent will be selected to participate in the study.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Migration data for South Africa are available for 2007 only at the level of local governments or municipalities from the 2007 Census; for smaller areas called "sub places" (SPs) only as recently as the 2001 census, and for the desired EAs only back so far as the Census of 1996. In sum, there was no single source that provided recent data on the five types of migrants of principal interest at the level of the Enumeration Area, which was the area for which data were needed to draw the sample since it was going to be necessary to identify migrant and non-migrant households in the sample areas in order to oversample those with migrants for interview.

In an attempt to overcome the data limitations referred to above, it was necessary to adopt a novel approach to the design of the sample for the World Bank's household migration survey in South Africa, to identify EAs with a high probability of finding immigrants and those with a low probability. This required the combined use of the three sources of data described above. The starting point was the CS 2007 survey, which provided data on migration at a local government level, classifying each local government cluster in terms of migration level, taking into account the types of migrants identified. The researchers then spatially zoomed in from these clusters to the so-called sub-places (SPs) from the 2001 Census to classifying SP clusters by migration level. Finally, the 1996 Census data were used to zoom in even further down to the EA level, using the 1996 census data on migration levels of various typed, to identify the final level of clusters for the survey, namely the spatially small EAs (each typically containing about 200 households, and hence amenable to the listing operation in the field).

A higher score or weight was attached to the 2007 Community Survey municipality-level (MN) data than to the Census 2001 sub-place (SP) data, which in turn was given a greater weight than the 1996 enumerator area (EA) data. The latter was derived exclusively from the Census 1996 EA data, but has then been reallocated to the 2001 EAs proportional to geographical size. Although these weights are purely arbitrary since it was composed from different sources, they give an indication of the relevant importance attached to the different migrant categories. These weighted migrant proportions (secondary strata), therefore constituted the second level of clusters for sampling purposes.

In addition, a system of weighting or scoring the different persons by migrant type was applied to ensure that the likelihood of finding migrants would be optimised. As part of this procedure, recent migrants (who had migrated in the preceding five years) received a higher score than lifetime migrants (who had not migrated during the preceding five years). Similarly, a higher score was attached to international immigrants (both recent and lifetime, who had come to SA from abroad) than to internal migrants (who had only moved within SA's borders). A greater weight also applied to inter-provincial (internal) than to intra-provincial migrants (who only moved within the same South African province).

How the three data sources were combined to provide overall scores for EA can be briefly described. First, in each of the two provinces, all local government units were given migration scores according to the numbers or relative proportions of the population classified in the various categories of migrants (with non-migrants given a score of 1.0. Migrants were assigned higher scores according to their priority, with international migrants given higher scores than internal migrants and recent migrants higher scores than lifetime migrants. Then within the local governments, sub-places were assigned scores assigned on the basis of inter vs. intra-provincial migrants using the 2001 census data. Each SP area in a local government was thus assigned a value which was the product of its local government score (the same for all SPs in the local government) and its own SP score. The third and final stage was to develop relative migration scores for all the EAs from the 1996 census by similarly weighting the proportions of migrants (and non-migrants, assigned always 1.0) of each type. The the final migration score for an EA is the product of its own EA score from 1996, the SP score of which it is a part (assigned to all the EAs within the SP), and the local government score from the 2007 survey.

Based on all the above principles the set of weights or scores was developed.

In sum, we multiplied the proportion of populations of each migrant type, or their incidence, by the appropriate final corresponding EA scores for persons of each type in the EA (based on multiplying the three weights together), to obtain the overall score for each EA. This takes into account the distribution of persons in the EA according to migration status in 1996, the SP score of the EA in 2001, and the local government score (in which the EA is located) from 2007. Finally, all EAs in each province were then classified into quartiles, prior to sampling from the quartiles.

From the EAs so classified, the sampling took the form of selecting EAs, i.e., primary sampling units (PSUs, which in this case are also Ultimate Sampling Units, since this is a single stage sample), according to their classification into quartiles. The proportions selected from each quartile are based on the range of EA-level scores which are assumed to reflect weighted probabilities of finding desired migrants in each EA. To enhance the likelihood of finding migrants, much higher proportions of EAs were selected into the sample from the quartiles with the higher scores compared to the lower scores (disproportionate sampling). The decision on the most appropriate categorisations was informed by the observed migration levels in the two provinces of the study area during 2007, 2001 and 1996, analysed at the lowest spatial level for which migration data was available in each case.

Because of the differences in their characteristics it was decided that the provinces of Gauteng and Limpopo should each be regarded as an explicit stratum for sampling purposes. These two provinces therefore represented the primary explicit strata. It was decided to select an equal number of EAs from these two primary strata.

The migration-level categories referred to above were treated as secondary explicit strata to ensure optimal coverage of each in the sample. The distribution of migration levels was then used to draw EAs in such a way that greater preference could be given to areas with higher proportions of migrants in general, but especially immigrants (note the relative scores assigned to each type of person above). The proportion of EAs selected into the sample from the quartiles draws upon the relative mean weighted migrant scores (referred to as proportions) found below the table, but this is a coincidence and not necessary, as any disproportionate sampling of EAs from the quartiles could be done, since it would be rectified in the weighting at the end for the analysis.

The resultant proportions of migrants then led to the following proportional allocation of sampled EAs (Quartile 1: 5 per cent (instead of 25% as in an equal distribution), Quartile 2: 15 per cent (instead