What is the population of Dar es Salaam?
Dar es Salaam has a city population of 5,383,728. That is the population within the city's own boundary, not its wider metropolitan area. City population, GeoNames.
City profile · Tanzania · Africa
Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam Region · Tanzania
City population
5,383,728
#1
in Tanzania
#53
worldwide
-6.823, 39.270 · 397 km from Dodoma
About Dar es Salaam
With a metropolitan population of 7.405 million, Dar es Salaam is Tanzania's largest urban center. The city-proper encompasses 5.383 million residents at a density of 4,657 people per km², reflecting intense concentration across its relatively compact area. Annual growth of 5.1% indicates rapid demographic expansion.
Founded in 1862, the city sits at a low elevation of 24 m on Africa's eastern coast. Julius Nyerere International Airport (DAR) and Abeid Amani Karume International Airport (ZNZ) serve the metropolitan area, connecting it to regional and international networks.
This summary is AI-generated from the figures on this page. The figures themselves come from the sources cited beside each value.
Metro population
7,405,000
0.089% of world population
Archive estimateAnnual growth
+5.12%
Archive estimateDensity
4,657/km²
1,590 km² metro area
Key Facts
Country
Region
Dar es Salaam Region
Founded
1862
Coordinates
-6.823, 39.270
Record updated
14 April 2026
Entry edited, not measured
City population, GeoNames. GeoNames publishes no year for its population figures, so “record updated” is when the entry was last edited — not the date the population was measured. Elevation is modelled from a digital elevation model rather than surveyed, so it is approximate.
Nearby Cities
All 223 in TanzaniaClosest listed cities by great-circle distance from the city centre.
Compared with the World's Largest Cities
City-proper population against the fifteen largest cities in the dataset.
| Name | City population |
|---|---|
| Shanghai | 24.9M |
| Beijing | 19M |
| Shenzhen | 17.5M |
| Guangzhou | 16.1M |
| Kinshasa | 16M |
| Istanbul | 15.7M |
| Lagos | 15.4M |
| Ho Chi Minh City | 14M |
| Chengdu | 13.6M |
| Lahore | 13M |
| Mumbai | 12.7M |
| São Paulo | 12.4M |
| Mexico City | 12.3M |
| Karachi | 11.6M |
| Tianjin | 11.1M |
| Dar es Salaam | 5.38M |
Airports
Scheduled-service airports within 100 km, nearest first.
- Julius Nyerere International AirportDAR
9 km from the city centre
- Abeid Amani Karume International AirportZNZ
67 km from the city centre
Source: OurAirports, matched by distance.
Population Trend in Tanzania
No free source publishes city population back to 1950, so the parent country's series is shown instead.
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1950 | 7,625,155 |
| 1960 | 9,901,419 |
| 1970 | 13,492,677 |
| 1980 | 19,189,769 |
| 1990 | 26,110,207 |
| 2000 | 34,260,139 |
| 2010 | 44,758,488 |
| 2020 | 60,972,798 |
| 2030 | 80,913,124 |
| 2040 | 103,999,359 |
| 2050 | 129,621,102 |
| 2060 | 156,850,592 |
| 2070 | 184,885,708 |
| 2080 | 212,537,418 |
| 2090 | 238,809,591 |
| 2100 | 262,834,721 |
Dar es Salaam Population FAQ
Where is Dar es Salaam?
Dar es Salaam is in Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania, 397 km from the capital, Dodoma. Its coordinates are -6.823, 39.270.
How big is Dar es Salaam compared with other cities in Tanzania?
It is the 1st largest of the 223 cities listed in Tanzania, holding 7.6% of the national population.