The largest cities in South Africa by population are Johannesburg (about 5.8 million in its urban area), Cape Town (about 4.7 million), Durban (about 3.7 million) and Pretoria (about 2.6 million), followed by Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein, Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit), Polokwane and East London. Together these urban centres anchor a country of roughly 60 million people, one of the most urbanised nations in sub-Saharan Africa.
The Ten Largest South African Cities
The figures below reflect metropolitan and broader urban populations rather than narrow city-centre counts, which is why they run higher than core municipal totals. Note that two cities were officially renamed in 2021: Port Elizabeth became Gqeberha and Nelspruit became Mbombela.
- Johannesburg — approximately 5.8 million
- Cape Town — approximately 4.7 million
- Durban (eThekwini) — approximately 3.7 million
- Pretoria (Tshwane) — approximately 2.6 million
- Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) — approximately 1.3 million
- Pietermaritzburg — approximately 0.75 million
- Bloemfontein — approximately 0.75 million
- Mbombela (Nelspruit) — approximately 0.61 million
- Polokwane — approximately 0.58 million
- East London — approximately 0.48 million
Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban: The Big Three
Johannesburg is South Africa's largest city and its economic engine. Founded in 1886 after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, it grew from a mining camp into the financial heart of the country and the wider continent. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the Sandton business district and the broader Gauteng province generate a substantial share of national GDP.
Cape Town, the second-largest city, is the oldest European-founded settlement in the country, dating to 1652. Wrapped around Table Mountain and the Cape Peninsula, it is the country's leading tourist destination and the seat of Parliament. Durban, on the warm Indian Ocean coast in KwaZulu-Natal, is home to the busiest port in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest populations of people of Indian descent outside India.
South Africa's Three Capital Cities
Unusually, South Africa distributes its capital functions across three cities, a compromise reached at the formation of the Union in 1910. Pretoria serves as the executive (administrative) capital and hosts the Union Buildings and most government departments. Cape Town is the legislative capital, home to Parliament. Bloemfontein, in the Free State, is the judicial capital and seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Pretoria and Johannesburg, both in Gauteng, sit only about 50 km apart and form part of a vast connected conurbation that is among the largest urban regions in Africa. You can learn more about the country in our south africa country guide.
Regional Centres and Provincial Hubs
Beyond the major metros, several mid-sized cities serve as the economic and administrative anchors of their provinces. Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape is a key automotive manufacturing centre and a coastal hub along Algoa Bay. Pietermaritzburg is the capital of KwaZulu-Natal province and a historic railway town. Mbombela is the capital of Mpumalanga and a gateway to the Kruger National Park, while Polokwane serves as the capital of Limpopo, the northernmost province. East London, also in the Eastern Cape, is the country's only river port.
How Urbanisation Shapes South Africa
Roughly two-thirds of South Africans now live in urban areas, and that share continues to climb as people move from rural regions toward economic opportunity. This drives steady growth in the largest cities, sometimes faster than housing and infrastructure can keep pace. Gauteng province alone — containing Johannesburg, Pretoria and the East Rand — holds a quarter of the national population on a small fraction of the land area, making it one of the most densely populated and economically productive regions in Africa.
Three Capitals, One Country
South Africa is the only country in the world with three capital cities, and the arrangement is a direct compromise from the formation of the Union in 1910. Pretoria holds the executive and the president's office, Cape Town holds parliament, and Bloemfontein holds the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The split was designed to balance the former Boer republics against the British colonies, giving each a share of the state. It has survived every constitutional change since, including 1994, largely because moving any of the three would cost more politically than it would save administratively.
The practical result is that ministers and civil servants shuttle between Pretoria and Cape Town when parliament sits, an arrangement periodically criticised as expensive and periodically defended as the price of the original settlement.
Johannesburg Exists Because of Gold
Johannesburg is the largest city in the country and one of the largest in the world not built on a river, a lake or a coast. It is there because of the Witwatersrand gold reef, discovered in 1886, which turned out to be the richest goldfield ever found.
The city went from open veld to a settlement of a hundred thousand within a decade. The mine dumps, pale yellow hills of processed tailings, are still visible around the southern suburbs, and the deepest mines on earth run more than four kilometres below the surface nearby.
Gold also drove the labour system that shaped modern South Africa: migrant contract workers housed in single-sex compounds, drawn from across southern Africa, under a pass system that became a foundation of apartheid law.
Apartheid Planning Is Still in the Street Layout
South African cities were deliberately engineered to separate people, and the physical results outlast the laws. The Group Areas Act of 1950 assigned residential districts by race and authorised the forced removal of communities who were in the wrong place.
Sophiatown in Johannesburg was demolished and its residents moved to Meadowlands in Soweto. District Six in Cape Town, a mixed inner-city neighbourhood, was declared white in 1966 and bulldozed, displacing around 60,000 people; much of the land stood empty for decades afterwards and a museum now records what was there.
Townships were placed at a distance from city centres, separated by buffer strips and served by long commutes. Those distances remain, which is why the minibus taxi industry carrying millions of workers daily is such a central institution in South African urban life.
Cape Town and the Water That Nearly Ran Out
Cape Town sits beneath Table Mountain on a peninsula between two oceans, and it is the oldest European-founded city in the country, established by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 as a resupply station on the route to Asia.
Between 2015 and 2018 it came closer than any major city in modern times to exhausting its municipal water supply. A three-year drought drove reservoir levels towards a point officials called Day Zero, when taps would have been shut off and residents would have queued at collection points.
Consumption restrictions, tariff changes and eventual rain averted it, and the episode has since been studied intensively as a template for other water-stressed cities. Table Mountain itself is part of the Cape Floral Region, a UNESCO site holding an exceptional concentration of plant species found nowhere else.
Durban Faces a Different Ocean
Durban, on the Indian Ocean coast, has the busiest container port in sub-Saharan Africa and a subtropical climate quite unlike the Mediterranean Cape or the highveld around Johannesburg.
It also holds one of the largest populations of Indian descent outside India, originating in indentured labourers brought from 1860 to work the KwaZulu-Natal sugar plantations. Mohandas Gandhi practised law in Durban for two decades from 1893, and the political methods he developed there shaped what he later did in India.
The city is the centre of Zulu South Africa, and KwaZulu-Natal is the most populous province in the country, which is why Durban's metropolitan area ranks close behind Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Common Questions About South African Cities
What is the largest city in South Africa?
Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa, with an urban population of roughly 5.8 million. It is the country's financial and commercial capital, though not one of its official seats of government.
Is Cape Town or Johannesburg bigger?
Johannesburg is bigger. Its urban area holds around 5.8 million people compared with Cape Town's roughly 4.7 million, making Johannesburg the most populous city in the country.
What is the capital city of South Africa?
South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria is the executive capital, Cape Town is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. This division spreads government functions across the country.
Why were some South African cities renamed?
In 2021 Port Elizabeth was officially renamed Gqeberha and Nelspruit became Mbombela, part of a broader effort to adopt names rooted in local indigenous languages rather than colonial-era ones.
What is the largest city in South Africa?
Johannesburg, whose metropolitan area holds several million people and merges with Ekurhuleni and Pretoria into the Gauteng conurbation. Cape Town is the second-largest municipality and Durban the third.
How many official languages does South Africa have?
Twelve, following the addition of South African Sign Language in 2023. The eleven before it were isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, siSwati, Tshivenda and isiNdebele, and the dominant language varies sharply between the cities on this list.
Is Soweto a separate city?
No. Soweto, whose name is a contraction of South Western Townships, is part of the City of Johannesburg municipality. It holds well over a million people and would rank among South Africa's largest cities if counted on its own.