diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 418135298..04aaaab43 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ 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..9dc9b14c2 100644
--- a/src/squidpy/_utils.py
+++ b/src/squidpy/_utils.py
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@
 import numpy as np
 import xarray as xr
 from spatialdata.models import Image2DModel, Labels2DModel
-from tqdm.auto import tqdm
+
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from numba_progress import ProgressBar
 
 __all__ = ["singledispatchmethod", "Signal", "SigQueue", "NDArray", "NDArrayA"]
 
@@ -262,9 +264,9 @@ 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 ``numba_progress`` progress bar.
     unit
-        Label shown next to the ``tqdm`` counter.
+        Label shown next to the progress counter.
 
     Returns
     -------
@@ -273,17 +275,31 @@ 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)
+
+    def _run(pbar: ProgressBar | None) -> list[Any]:
+        def _consume(results_it: Iterable[Any]) -> list[Any]:
+            results = []
+            # ``map``/``pool.map`` yield in submission order, so results stay aligned with *items*.
+            for res in results_it:
+                results.append(res)
+                if pbar is not None:
+                    pbar.update(1)
+            return results
+
+        if n_jobs == 1:
+            return _consume(map(fn, items))
+
+        with ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=n_jobs) as pool:
+            return _consume(pool.map(fn, items))
+
+    if show_progress_bar:
+        from numba_progress import ProgressBar
+
+        with ProgressBar(total=len(items), unit=unit) as pbar:
+            return _run(pbar)
+
+    return _run(None)
 
 
 def _get_n_cores(n_cores: int | None) -> int: