Western Sahara — World Gazetteer, 2005 edition
Western Sahara had an estimated population of 428,839 in 2005, with 10 places recorded. Archived from the World Gazetteer, the reference work formerly published at this domain.
For current figures: Western Sahara today — population now 610,813, against 428,839 in 2005.
| Source | 2005 | Now | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Gazetteer (the work cited) | 428,839 | — | — |
| UN World Population Prospects | 338,699 | 610,813 | +80% |
The two sources differ by 27% for 2005. The Gazetteer figure is the one the citation you followed refers to; the UN pair is the like-for-like comparison.
Cities and towns, 2005
| # | Place | Region | Population (2005) | Today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | al-ʿAyūn | al-ʿAyūn | 199,641 | — |
| 2 | Laayoune | 188,202 | 196,331 now | |
| 3 | ad-Dāẖlah | Wad-ađ-Đahab | 63,977 | — |
| 4 | Dakhla | 60,982 | 106,277 now | |
| 5 | Es-Semara | 41,106 | — | |
| 6 | Boujdour | 39,447 | 42,651 now | |
| 7 | as-Samārah | as-Samārah | 38,778 | — |
| 8 | Bū Jaydūr | Bū Jaydūr | 37,540 | — |
| 9 | El Marsa | 10,931 | 28,848 now | |
| 10 | Tarfaya | 5,661 | — |
The Today column links to our current page for the same place, where one matches by name and plausible size; the figure shown there is today's, never 2005's. A dash means no confident match, which is more honest than a guessed link.
Administrative divisions, 2005
| # | Name | Population (2005) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | al-ʿAyūn | 212,638 |
| 2 | Wad-ađ-Đahab | 105,775 |
| 3 | as-Samārah | 62,132 |
| 4 | Bū Jaydūr | 48,294 |
The complete dataset is available as a free CSV download, with attribution to Stefan Helders / World Gazetteer.