diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index ddad831cb..897ec77f1 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "matplotlib-scalebar>=0.8",
   "networkx>=2.6",
   "numba>=0.56.4",
+  "numba-progress>=1.1",
   "numpy>=1.23",
   "omnipath>=1.0.7",
   "pandas>=2.1",
diff --git a/src/squidpy/_utils.py b/src/squidpy/_utils.py
index 17e6a7a83..999c84e60 100644
--- a/src/squidpy/_utils.py
+++ b/src/squidpy/_utils.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import os
 import warnings
 from collections.abc import Callable, Generator, Hashable, Iterable, Sequence
-from contextlib import contextmanager
+from contextlib import contextmanager, nullcontext
 from enum import Enum
 from multiprocessing import Manager
 from queue import Queue
@@ -19,7 +19,11 @@
 import numpy as np
 import xarray as xr
 from spatialdata.models import Image2DModel, Labels2DModel
-from tqdm.auto import tqdm
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from contextlib import AbstractContextManager
+
+    from numba_progress import ProgressBar
 
 __all__ = ["singledispatchmethod", "Signal", "SigQueue", "NDArray", "NDArrayA"]
 
@@ -243,6 +247,25 @@ def wrapper(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Any:
     return wrapper
 
 
+def progress_bar(
+    total: int,
+    *,
+    show_progress_bar: bool = True,
+    unit: str = "item",
+    desc: str | None = None,
+) -> AbstractContextManager[ProgressBar | None]:
+    """Create a progress bar usable both inside and outside :mod:`numba` functions."""
+    if not show_progress_bar:
+        return nullcontext(None)
+
+    from numba_progress import ProgressBar
+
+    kwargs: dict[str, Any] = {"total": total, "unit": unit}
+    if desc is not None:
+        kwargs["desc"] = desc
+    return ProgressBar(**kwargs)
+
+
 def thread_map(
     fn: Callable[..., Any],
     items: Sequence[Any],
@@ -262,9 +285,9 @@ def thread_map(
     n_jobs
         Number of worker threads. ``1`` runs sequentially (no pool overhead).
     show_progress_bar
-        Whether to display a ``tqdm`` progress bar.
+        Whether to display a progress bar (see :func:`progress_bar`).
     unit
-        Label shown next to the ``tqdm`` counter.
+        Label shown next to the progress counter.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -273,17 +296,25 @@ def thread_map(
     """
     from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor
 
-    if n_jobs == 1:
-        it: Iterable[Any] = map(fn, items)
-        if show_progress_bar and tqdm is not None:
-            it = tqdm(it, total=len(items), unit=unit)
-        return list(it)
-
-    with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=n_jobs) as pool:
-        it = pool.map(fn, items)
-        if show_progress_bar and tqdm is not None:
-            it = tqdm(it, total=len(items), unit=unit)
-        return list(it)
+    items = list(items)
+
+    with progress_bar(len(items), show_progress_bar=show_progress_bar, unit=unit) as pbar:
+        if n_jobs == 1:
+            results = []
+            for item in items:
+                results.append(fn(item))
+                if pbar is not None:
+                    pbar.update(1)
+            return results
+
+        with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=n_jobs) as pool:
+            results = []
+            # ``pool.map`` yields in submission order, so results stay aligned with *items*.
+            for res in pool.map(fn, items):
+                results.append(res)
+                if pbar is not None:
+                    pbar.update(1)
+            return results
 
 
 def _get_n_cores(n_cores: int | None) -> int: