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.

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

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in Tanzania was reported at 31.21 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Tanzania - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

Tanzania TZ: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 30.194 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 30.104 % for 2016. Tanzania TZ: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 30.753 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 34.123 % in 1967 and a record low of 29.695 % in 1996. Tanzania TZ: 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 Tanzania – Table TZ.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;

Population in largest city in Tanzania was reported at 8161231 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Tanzania - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on July of 2025.

Tanzania TZ: Population in Largest City data was reported at 5,719,486.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 5,409,174.000 Person for 2016. Tanzania TZ: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 1,380,124.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 5,719,486.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 162,126.000 Person in 1960. Tanzania TZ: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Tanzania – Table TZ.World Bank.WDI: 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.; ;

Major cities demand dataset is modelled as raster-based travel time/cost analysis and weighted using the population/market size dimension as a measure of demand. Individual cumulative travel time/cost maps were produced for the country’s 10 largest cities (>200k habitants). The final market/demand layer consists of an arithmetic weighted sum of normalized (0-100) city accessibility grids. The following values were assumed for major cities population of Tanzania: City - Population - Weight % Dar es Salaam - 4,364,541 - 0.579 Mwanza - 706,453 - 0.094 Zanzibar - 501,459 - 0.067 Arusha - 416,442 - 0.055 Mbeya - 385,279 - 0.051 Morogoro - 305,840 - 0.041 Tanga - 221,127 - 0.029 Kigoma - 215,458 - 0.029 Dodoma - 213,636 - 0.028 Songea - 203,309 - 0.027 This 1km resolution raster dataset is part of FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, Geographical Information Systems - Multicriteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) aimed at the identification of value chain infrastructure sites (optimal location).

Accessibility to major cities dataset is modelled as raster-based travel time/cost analysis, computed for the 10 largest cities (>200k habitants) in the country, normalized from 0 to 100, where 0 corresponds to the lowest city accessibility. The following cities are included: City - Population Dar es Salaam - 4,364,541 Mwanza - 706,453 Zanzibar - 501,459 Arusha - 416,442 Mbeya - 385,279 Morogoro - 305,840 Tanga - 221,127 Kigoma - 215,458 Dodoma - 213,636 Songea - 203,309 This 1km resolution raster dataset is part of FAO’s Hand-in-Hand Initiative, Geographical Information Systems - Multicriteria Decision Analysis (GIS-MCDA) aimed at the identification of value chain infrastructure sites (or optimal location)

This horizontal bar chart displays countries yearly by capital city using the aggregation count in Tanzania. The data is filtered where the date is 2023. The data is about countries per year.

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.

This horizontal bar chart displays individuals using the Internet (% of population) by capital city using the aggregation average, weighted by population in Tanzania. The data is filtered where the date is 2023. The data is about countries per year.

This horizontal bar chart displays renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption) by capital city using the aggregation average in Tanzania. The data is about countries per year.

In 2023, the share of urban population in Tanzania increased by 0.7 percentage points (+1.91 percent) compared to 2022. Therefore, the share in Tanzania reached a peak in 2023 with 37.41 percent. Notably, the share continuously increased over the last years.A population may be defined as urban depending on the size (population or area) or population density of the village, town, or city. The urbanization rate then refers to the share of the total population who live in an urban setting. International comparisons may be inconsistent due to differing parameters for what constitutes an urban center.Find more key insights for the share of urban population in countries like Seychelles and Rwanda.

In order to bring a thorough and comprehensive understanding of social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges faced by cities and local communities in the developing countries, the SHLC team conducted a major household survey followed by a neighbourhood focus group interview in seven Asian and African countries from late 2021 to early 2022. In each country the study includes two case study cities: one large city and one smaller regional cities. Within each case study cities, neighbourhoods were identified and categorised into five income and wealth bands: the rich, upper middle income, middle income, lower middle and low income neighbourhoods.

A household survey was carried out face to face by trained interviewers with a random adult member of the household. The 20 page common questionnaire was designed and adopted by all teams, which cover topics of housing, residence, living conditions, migration, education, health, neighbourhood infrastructure, facilities, governance and relations, income and employments, gender equality and impacts from Covid-19. The sample was distributed in the city to representative the five neighbourhood types. The survey was completed in 13 of the 14 case study cities (fieldwork in Chongqing in China was delayed by the Covid-19 lockdowns and implemented in August 2023). The target sample for each city was 1000; the total sample in the database (SPSS and STATA) include 14245 households.

The survey was followed by focus group interviews. A carefully designed and agreed common interview guide was used by all team. The target was to have one focus group for one neighbourhood in each income band in each city. A total of 74 focus group interviews were conducted (Fieldwork in Datong and Chongqing in China was delayed). The transcripts are the qualitative data shared here.

The Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (SHLC) was funded by UKRI Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) from 2017 to 2023. Its main aim was to grow research capability to meet the challenges faced by developing countries (Grow). SHLC, led by University of Glasgow, was set up as an international collaborative research centre to address urban challenges across communities in Africa and Asia. Its work contributed to three UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals: 11 - Make cities and human settlements sustainable; 3 - Ensure healthy lives for all; 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. SHLC brought together the expertise of urban studies, education, health, geography, planning and data science from nine institutions in eight countries. Its international partners included: Ifakara Health Institute (Tanzania), Khulna University (Bangladesh), Nankai University (China), National Institute of Urban Affairs (India), The Human Sciences Research Council and University of Witwatersrand (South Africa), The University of the Philippines and The University of Rwanda. SHLC working programme had two streams of work and eight specific task packages. Stream one included four Capacity Strengthening Packages which involved the training of over 100 researchers and enhancing the associated academic networks. Steam two work consisted of four Research Task Packages. The co-designed research programme adopted a common research framework in all seven countries (14 case study cities), aiming to bring a thorough and comprehensive understanding of social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges faced by these cities and local communities. Apart from policy reviews, secondary data analysis, the project employed two major primary data collection methods – household questionnaire survey and neighbourhood focus groups. The team have overcome many challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemics and completed the household survey in 13 cities with a total sample size of 14245, which covered five different types of neighbourhoods ranging from the rich to the poor. The team also completed 74 neighbourhood focus group interviews. Data collection was carried out from late 2021 to early 2022. Huge resources and researchers’ time were dedicated to coordinate, collect, translate, clean and merge these quantitative and qualitative data.

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.

This horizontal bar chart displays proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments (%) by capital city using the aggregation average in Tanzania. The data is filtered where the date is 2023. The data is about countries per year.

Religion adoption varied across residential areas in Tanzania as of 2021. In urban regions, over 40 percent of respondents declared being Muslims, while this share stood at nearly 25 percent in rural areas. In urban and rural regions, around 15 percent and 14 percent of the surveyed population, respectively, identified as Christians only. Among Christian religions, Roman Catholic was the most followed - by 27 percent of respondents in rural areas and 20.8 percent in urban areas.

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.

TZ：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比在12-01-2017达30.194%，相较于12-01-2016的30.104%有所增长。TZ：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比数据按年更新，12-01-1960至12-01-2017期间平均值为30.753%，共58份观测结果。该数据的历史最高值出现于12-01-1967，达34.123%，而历史最低值则出现于12-01-1996，为29.695%。CEIC提供的TZ：最大城市人口占城市总人口的百分比数据处于定期更新的状态，数据来源于World Bank，数据归类于Global Database的坦桑尼亚 – 表 TZ.世界银行：人口和城市化进程统计。

This horizontal bar chart displays electricity production from renewable sources, excluding hydroelectric (% of total) by capital city using the aggregation average in Tanzania. The data is about countries per year.