Mapped: Urban Sprawl in Africa (1975 to 2025)

Marcus Lu
2025-09-12 13:01:00
www.visualcapitalist.com

Mapped: Urban Sprawl in Africa (1975 to 2025)

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Africa is urbanizing at an impressive pace, with cities growing rapidly in both population and geographical footprint. This expansion has reshaped economies, infrastructure, and regional dynamics.

To see what this change looks like, we’ve visualized the amount of built-up land across Africa at two points in time: 1975 and 2025 (projected).

Data & Discussion

The data for this visualization comes from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), a programme of the European Union. It tracks the spatial growth of urban settlements, showing how population centers have expanded since 1975 and projecting trends through 2025.

Please note that the GHSL dataset is not in a format that can be shown in a table. Instead, we’ve listed Africa’s top 20 cities (metro areas) by population below.

City	Country	Population (2025)
Cairo	Egypt	23,074,200
Kinshasa	DR Congo	17,778,500
Lagos	Nigeria	17,156,400
Luanda	Angola	10,027,900
Dar es Salaam	Tanzania	8,561,520
Khartoum	Sudan	6,754,180
Johannesburg	South Africa	6,444,580
Abidjan	Ivory Coast	6,056,880
Addis Ababa	Ethiopia	5,956,680
Alexandria	Egypt	5,807,050
Nairobi	Kenya	5,766,990
Cape Town	South Africa	5,063,580
Yaounde	Cameroon	4,854,260
Kano	Nigeria	4,645,320
Douala	Cameroon	4,346,420
Kampala	Uganda	4,265,160
Antananarivo	Madagascar	4,228,980
Abuja	Nigeria	4,209,940
Ibadan	Nigeria	4,144,130
Kumasi	Ghana	4,036,230
Casablanca	Morocco	4,012,310
Port Harcourt	Nigeria	3,793,780
Dakar	Senegal	3,658,640

The Rise of Africa’s Mega-Cities

Cairo (Egypt), Kinshasa (DRC), and Lagos (Nigeria) dominate the continent’s urban hierarchy. Cairo leads with over 23 million people, while Kinshasa and Lagos each surpass 17 million.

These cities have grown into global-scale megacities, pulling in migration from rural areas and smaller towns.

Their growth also reflects broader trends of economic opportunity and population pressure. For example, Egypt and Nigeria are two of Africa’s top countries by GDP.

Geographic Limits to Urbanization

Urban sprawl in Africa is most pronounced in the southern part of the continent, contrasting sharply with sparsely populated regions such as the Sahara.

The Sahara, Sahel, and parts of the Congo Basin act as natural barriers to urban sprawl. Coastal hubs and river valleys attract concentrated populations, while deserts and arid zones remain largely empty.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The Five Countries Responsible for Half of African GDP on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

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