South Africa Cities by Population 2025

South Africa Overview

South Africa has 6 cities with more than a million people, 33 cities with between 100,000 and 1 million people, and 173 cities with between 10,000 and 100,000 people. The largest city in South Africa is Soweto, with a population of 1,695,047 people.

The southernmost country in Africa and the largest country in southern Africa, South Africa is an ecologically diverse and multicultural country, home to mountains, beaches, forests and lagoons. While Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa, with a population of around 4.5 million residents, it is not the country’s capital city. Unusually, South Africa actually has three separate capital cities: Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town. Each of these functions as the seat of a different branch of government. Pretoria is the location of the administrative branch of government. An intellectual and research hub, the city is home to three universities and has a population of 741,651 residents.

Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa and is the location of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa. The city has a population of around 520,000 residents, making it the seventh largest city in the country. Its name is derived from the Afrikaans and Dutch for ‘fountain of flowers’ or ‘blooming fountain’, but it is also known as ‘The City of Roses’ as the flowers are very popular and an annual rose festival is held in the city. South Africa’s third capital is the coastal city of Cape Town, the seat of the Parliament of South Africa and the country’s legislative capital. Cape Town is home to 433,688 residents in the city and more than 3.7 million in the metropolitan area. Cape Town is known for its harbor and the famous flat-topped Table Mountain, which overlooks the city.