Somali Cities by Pop. (2005): How has this list changed today?

[NotreDame]

Rank	City	Region	Population
1	Mogadishu	Banaadir	901,183
2	Hargeisa	Woqooyi Galbeed	540,028
3	Burco	Togdheer	288,211
4	Baydhabo	Bay, Somalia	227,761
5	Jowhar	Middle Shabelle	218,027
6	Borama	Awdal	215,616
7	Marka	Lower Shabelle	192,393
8	Kismayo	Lower Jubba	166,667
9	Bosaso	Bari	164,906
10	Beledweyne	Hiiraan	144,345
11	Galkaio	Mudug	137,667
12	Erigavo	Sanaag	114,846
13	Jilib	Middle Juba	113,415
14	Bardera	Gedo	106,172
15	Hudur	Bakool	93,049
16	Dhuusamareeb	Galguduud	91,206
17	Las Anod	Sool	75,436
18	Garoowe	Nugal	57,991
19	Garbahare	Gedo	38,017

 

[NotreDame]

Back when somalia didn't even have a city with 1 mill+ population. Hargeisa was on;y half a mill, and besides that every other city was hovering around 200K population.

I feel like garowe and Las Anod made the biggest change on this list, they were both 18th and 17th respectively and are now undoubtedly in top 10. Cities like Jowhar, and Jilib became washed up. They're practically irrelevant now.

 

[NotreDame]

https://www.unocha.org/sites/dms/Somalia/UNDP-POP-RURAL-URBAN%202005.pdf

Here's my source. 2005 UN estimates.

 

[AarHawd_7]

I believe top 3 is un changed though.

 

[NotreDame]

I believe top 3 is un changed though.

Possibly. I'm just struggling to find any Somali city population estimates past 2010. Would be interesting to see cities in 2020 population. Top 3 may not have changed but top 10 would definitely be completely different today than it was 2005, I don't even see Berbera on this list.

 

[DR OSMAN]

Bosaso is larger then Hargeisa today. No-one knows each other in Bosaso and the increasing instability proves there is huge population. Galkacyo I think is larger then Burco. The population in Somalia is determined by where there is trade and business and PL is bustling with that. Where there is trade and business, it's natural crime increases in urban city.

Hargeisa and Burco do not have any symptoms of what a large metropolitan city should have, proving it's still a fucking tuulo sxb with people who know each other

 

[NotreDame]

Jowhaar had the biggest fall in Somalia. Went from being the 5th largest city in somalia to a city with a population of less than 20K due to constant warring between Al-shababa, Somali armed forces and Amisom. Causing many deaths and thousands of IDPs to go to farther cities.

Within a decade a city goes from 5th largest to the very bottom losing hundreds of thousands of people in the process, crazy.

 

[Dharbash]

Rank	City	Region	Population
1	Mogadishu	Banaadir	901,183
2	Hargeisa	Woqooyi Galbeed	540,028
3	Burco	Togdheer	288,211
4	Baydhabo	Bay, Somalia	227,761
5	Jowhar	Middle Shabelle	218,027
6	Borama	Awdal	215,616
7	Marka	Lower Shabelle	192,393
8	Kismayo	Lower Jubba	166,667
9	Bosaso	Bari	164,906
10	Beledweyne	Hiiraan	144,345
11	Galkaio	Mudug	137,667
12	Erigavo	Sanaag	114,846
13	Jilib	Middle Juba	113,415
14	Bardera	Gedo	106,172
15	Hudur	Bakool	93,049
16	Dhuusamareeb	Galguduud	91,206
17	Las Anod	Sool	75,436
18	Garoowe	Nugal	57,991
19	Garbahare	Gedo	38,017

Laascaanood 75k? When was this made??? It’s over 300k today

 

[NotreDame]

Laascaanood 75k? When was this made??? It’s over 300k today

Read the title. This is the list of populations from 2005. It says mogadishu is 901K as well.

 

[NotreDame]

Alongside Las Anod and Garowe, Berbera is also at the top of the list for the biggest come up. Berbera wasn't even on the list in 2005 and is now top 10 easily. Berbera had a population of 60K back in 2005 (Similar to Garowe and Las Anod)

These 3 cities all started at around the same level of population at 2005 and grew incredibly quickly to the top. They are probably very close in population right now too.

 

[DR OSMAN]

@NotreDame I would prefer to know what the electricity usage or water consumption level of each town is in Somalia. Maybe speak to 'wakaalada biyaha ama korontada' this will give u a good idea how many people are in each town of Somalia. As there is no way to predict Somali population, you will need to 'infer' the population by using water or electricity usage. A good idea is how many megawatts powers up hamar compared to Bosaso or how man water wells exists in each city water plant. Based on that reference point, you can calculate easily how much people there is by the consumption rate.

I would love to see more hard facts on population using water and electricity usage, this will shut me up, but till that happens, everyone will say they are large town

 

[Falcon]

Jowhaar had the biggest fall in Somalia. Went from being the 5th largest city in somalia to a city with a population of less than 20K due to constant warring between Al-shababa, Somali armed forces and Amisom. Causing many deaths and thousands of IDPs to go to farther cities.

Within a decade a city goes from 5th largest to the very bottom losing hundreds of thousands of people in the process, crazy.

less than 20k? that would mean Jowhar is a ghost town, which for a fact it isn’t. Jowhar is still at the hundred thousands even though the city’s growth had slowed down from 2006 till 2012 like many cities in the south. it had 7 years to reclaim itself.

 

[NotreDame]

@NotreDame I would prefer to know what the electricity usage or water consumption level of each town is in Somalia. Maybe speak to 'wakaalada biyaha ama korontada' this will give u a good idea how many people are in each town of Somalia. As there is no way to predict Somali population, you will need to 'infer' the population by using water or electricity usage. A good idea is how many megawatts powers up hamar compared to Bosaso or how man water wells exists in each city water plant.

That's a good idea, but it seems I'll have to do some deep researching for it. It's also not the best, it may help me find the top 4 cities maybe, but outside that I doubt there's any info on cities smaller than 500K population.

 

[NotreDame]

less than 20k? that would mean Jowhar is a ghost town, which for a fact it isn’t. Jowhar is still at the hundred thousands even though the city’s growth had slowed down from 2006 till 2012 like many cities in the south. it had 7 years to reclaim itself.

My source says 2018 estimate is 16K population.

 

[DR OSMAN]

@NotreDame the great thing about using electricity or water to gouge population, the somalis won't install new york style electricity plants for Somalian cities, will they? it will be a waste of investment, so you can calculate easily the population size by comparing it against the output of infrastructure. All the lies and games will end then. It will shut everyone mouth up.

 

[NotreDame]

@Falcon for some reason it says 16K population but other sources say Jowhard District has 250K+ population.

If you subtract the IDP and populations in shelters which were estimated to be ~80K. Jowhar should have a population of near 200K.

 

[DR OSMAN]

@NotreDame energy needs of a city is the best gouge of population in my book, I won't accept anything less personally, not even estimates from UNDP who do not provide information how they even reached they're estimations, you need to declare what your mechanism was. If I did a estimate and used water and electricity plants as a reference point, there is something backing my estimate, but they're is nothing backing these estimations other then 'informants' inside Somalia who estimate they're city using bogus numbers.

The other gouge u need to consider is, the quieter a town is, the more likely it's small and the locals know each other, the more bustling and larger a city is, you will find crime rate increases. That's why mogadishu is no 1 in crime rates, it's due to being largest city.

 

[NotreDame]

@NotreDame energy needs of a city is the best gouge of population in my book, I won't accept anything less personally, not even estimates from UNDP who do not provide information how they even reached they're estimations, you need to declare what your mechanism was. If I did a estimate and used water and electricity plants as a reference point, there is something backing my estimate, but they're is nothing backing these estimations other then 'informants' inside Somalia who estimate they're city using bogus numbers.

The other gouge u need to consider is, the quieter a town is, the more likely it's small and the locals know each other, the more bustling and larger a city is, you will find crime rate increases. That's why mogadishu is no 1 in crime rates, it's due to being largest city.

Crime rates don't increase by population. That's not how it works, there may be much more instances of crime but that doesn't necessarily mean crime rates have gone up. I don't fully trust these UN estimates either.

@Jablibax keeps on using 2014 estimates that are 100% messed up to me, they definitely do not align with even the 2005 estimates and most somali common knowledge. They don't even tell us how they got these estimates.

 

[Libaax-Joore]

Crime rates don't increase by population. That's not how it works, there may be much more instances of crime but that doesn't necessarily mean crime rates have gone up. I don't fully trust these UN estimates either.

@Jablibax keeps on using 2014 estimates that are 100% messed up to me, they definitely do not align with even the 2005 estimates and most somali common knowledge. They don't even tell us how they got these estimates.

2005 is fake

 

[abdallah]

Burco is Minimum 3x bigger than Boosaaso.

Burco in 2005 was 2x bigger than Boosaaso in 2017. So if I had to guess, 4-5x