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South Africa: cities by population

South Africa has a population of 57,779,622, with Pretoria as its capital. The 50 largest of its 941 recorded towns and cities, ranked.

Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are GeoNames country data. Sources & method.

#	Place	Region	Population
1	Johannesburg	Gauteng	9,418,183
2	Cape Town	Western Cape	4,772,846
3	Durban	KwaZulu-Natal	3,338,026
4	Pretoria	Gauteng	2,112,693
5	Soweto	Gauteng	1,695,047
6	Gqeberha	Eastern Cape	1,050,078
7	Soshanguve	Gauteng	872,309
8	Pietermaritzburg	KwaZulu-Natal	839,327
9	Evaton	Gauteng	725,468
10	Benoni	Gauteng	605,344
11	Bloemfontein	Free State	556,637
12	Thembisa	Gauteng	511,655
13	East London	Eastern Cape	478,676
14	Vereeniging	Gauteng	474,681
15	Boksburg	Gauteng	445,168
16	Welkom	Free State	431,944
17	Newcastle	KwaZulu-Natal	404,838
18	Krugersdorp	Gauteng	378,821
19	Rustenburg	North West	373,695
20	Emalahleni	Mpumalanga	373,403
21	Randburg	Gauteng	337,053
22	Roodepoort	Gauteng	326,416
23	Botshabelo	Free State	309,714
24	Brakpan	Gauteng	305,692
25	Kariega	Eastern Cape	291,052
26	Polokwane	Limpopo	272,461
27	Germiston	Gauteng	255,863
28	Richards Bay	KwaZulu-Natal	252,968
29	Vanderbijlpark	Gauteng	246,754
30	Paarl	Western Cape	236,910
31	Centurion	Gauteng	236,580
32	Klerksdorp	North West	227,039
33	Somerset West	Western Cape	225,289
34	Mdantsane	Eastern Cape	205,504
35	Middelburg	Mpumalanga	196,263
36	George	Western Cape	188,580
37	Carletonville	Gauteng	182,304
38	Potchefstroom	North West	178,285
39	Mthatha	Eastern Cape	164,848
40	KwaDukuza	KwaZulu-Natal	161,177
41	Westonaria	Gauteng	156,831
42	Etwatwa	Gauteng	151,866
43	Vryheid	KwaZulu-Natal	150,012
44	Pinetown	KwaZulu-Natal	144,026
45	Ladysmith	KwaZulu-Natal	143,446
46	eMbalenhle	Mpumalanga	142,443
47	Kimberley	Northern Cape	142,089
48	Nigel	Gauteng	140,644
49	Mpumalanga	KwaZulu-Natal	140,121
50	Bhisho	Eastern Cape	137,287

Twenty years earlier: South Africa in the 2005 World Gazetteer — population then 48,051,581.