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Africa is a continent that is rapidly expanding in terms of population, and this is reflected most clearly in its various sprawling urban populations. The top fifteen most populous cities on this continent all have in excess of two million residents. Nigeria’s Lagos is the largest city in Africa, with a minimum population of nine million (some estimates say the population is more than twice that number) – it is also one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, so the number is sure to increase. This is followed by Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cairo in Egypt, each with populations of around 7.7 million.
Some of the largest African countries, such as Nigeria and South Africa, have multiple cities with very large populations. In addition to Lagos, Nigeria is home to the cities of Kano and Ibadan, both of which have around 3.5 million residents, making them huge cities in their own right. Cape Town, in South Africa, also has a population of almost 3.5 million, but the South African city of Durban is not far behind at 3.1 million. South Africa is also home to Johannesburg, with its two million residents, as well as Soweto and Pretoria, each with 1.6 million residents.
However, these and other African countries also have many smaller cities. Egypt may have one of the largest African cities in Cairo, but it also has one of the smallest with the city of Disuq and its 102,037 residents. In fact, a large number of African cities have populations of around 100,000, including Katumba in Tanzania, Khemisset in Morocco and Lubango in Angola. Given the size of the continent of Africa, it is not surprising that there are also plenty of ‘mid-sized’ cities with populations of around a million. Among these are Port Elizabeth in South Africa (967,677), Tripoli in Libya (1.1 million) and Lusaka in Zambia (1.2 million).
