KwaZulu-Natal · South Africa
Richards Bay population
252,968people · latest figure
Richards Bay has a population of 252,968, making it the 28th largest place we list in South Africa. It is in KwaZulu-Natal.
Richards Bay holds 0.39% of South Africa's 65,453,084 people. Johannesburg, the largest place we list there, is 37 times its size. The World Gazetteer published 252,968 for Richards Bay in 2005 and GeoNames still carries that same figure, so there is no measured change to report.
The 2005 figure comes from the World Gazetteer archive restored on this site. Why figures differ.
Nearby in size
| Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Kariega | Eastern Cape | 291,052 |
| Polokwane | Limpopo | 272,461 |
| Germiston | Gauteng | 255,863 |
| Vanderbijlpark | Gauteng | 246,754 |
| Paarl | Western Cape | 236,910 |
| Centurion | Gauteng | 236,580 |
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 UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.