🌍 World Alive

Kenema — UN urban centre

249,485

Kenema: 249,485 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #2,342 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 1142; territory: Sierra Leone (SLE). UN source workbook.

Method: Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous 1 km2 cells, density 1,500+ people/km2, total 50,000+). This is a source-defined urban centre, not a municipality or province. No association with a separate administrative entity is inferred from proximity or name.

Source centroid: 7.8739, -11.1868. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.

UN population series

YearPeopleMethod
197574,103Estimate
198077,312Estimate
198585,694Estimate
199099,669Estimate
1995100,030Estimate
2000115,100Estimate
2005170,781Estimate
2010198,273Estimate
2015222,932Estimate
2020235,631Estimate
2025249,485Estimate
2030262,297Projection
2035274,736Projection
2040289,628Projection
2045300,377Projection
2050310,653Projection

Largest UN urban centres · Fastest-growing urban centres

What changed during your lifetime?

Turn these figures into a private, five-scene personal world story.

Use this source record with the right definition

This page is a structured reference entry. Its sources, geographic definition and reference dates determine what the figures mean; it is not independent reporting about the causes of change. Read the accompanying explanation before comparing different places or vintages.

Why an urban centre is not a municipality →

Interpretation reviewed 12 October 2026. Underlying reference years are stated on the page; this is not a fresh census or dataset refresh.