Urban land area (sq. km) - Country Ranking - Africa

Definition: Urban land area in square kilometers, based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.

Source: Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.e

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

Find indicator:
Rank Country Value Year
1 South Africa 53,460.31 2010
2 Algeria 30,195.80 2010
3 Egypt 24,270.23 2010
4 Nigeria 17,196.23 2010
5 Morocco 12,057.44 2010
6 Libya 10,082.89 2010
7 Tunisia 9,897.88 2010
8 Dem. Rep. Congo 9,061.72 2010
9 Sudan 6,517.51 2010
10 Ghana 6,239.44 2010
11 Ethiopia 5,166.72 2010
12 Kenya 4,187.62 2010
13 Cameroon 3,680.41 2010
14 Côte d'Ivoire 3,466.16 2010
15 Tanzania 3,405.81 2010
16 Mali 2,910.43 2010
17 Mozambique 2,739.15 2010
18 Namibia 2,467.78 2010
19 Madagascar 2,272.42 2010
20 Malawi 1,815.10 2010
21 Senegal 1,796.19 2010
22 Togo 1,663.07 2010
23 Guinea 1,473.60 2010
24 Benin 1,447.19 2010
25 Angola 1,427.03 2010
26 Mauritius 1,276.02 2010
27 Congo 1,087.16 2010
28 Gabon 836.48 2010
29 Eswatini 802.27 2010
30 Mauritania 771.60 2010
31 Sierra Leone 710.48 2010
32 The Gambia 446.18 2010
33 Liberia 434.28 2010
34 Somalia 398.72 2010
35 Eritrea 366.61 2010
36 Guinea-Bissau 306.34 2010
37 Comoros 196.41 2010
38 Cabo Verde 180.38 2010
39 Djibouti 149.83 2010
40 Seychelles 122.51 2010
41 Equatorial Guinea 97.47 2010
42 São Tomé and Principe 68.24 2010

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Statistical Concept and Methodology: The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) urban extent grid distinguishes urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights . Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons. This dataset is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT)

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual