What is the Largest City in Africa?

Cairo has the largest population of any city in Africa with more than 15 million people in the Cairo area. That's only slightly less than the entire population of the Netherlands and more than 4 million more than the next largest African city, which is Lagos, Nigeria. It is only slightly less populous than Moscow, and is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world, beating out Buenos Aires, London and Beijing.

More facts about Cairo:

• The word Cairo literally means "the conqueror," but many residents refer to the city by the Arabic name, Masr, which also is the Arabic name for Egypt.


• Cairo used to be a major academic center with an enormous library and the third-oldest university in the world. The city still has about half of the universities in Egypt.


• Like many larger cities, Cairo has a pollution problem — it's estimated that 25,000 people die annually from pollution-related conditions in Cairo.