1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Zimbabwe
Compare this sourced profile of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe before planning. Stable fields identify the place; confirm current transport, access and opening details with official sources.
01What the data says — and does not say
This page separates the checked GeoNames row for Bulawayo—665,952, Africa/Harare, and source coordinates—from live travel claims. Those fields identify and compare the record; they do not prove current transport, accessibility, census totals, or a City Atlas Club visit.
Wikidata's localized description: city in Zimbabwe.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Bulawayo is GeoNames ID 894701. Its recorded administrative path is Bulawayo → Zimbabwe, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Bulawayo occurs once as a primary city label in this atlas sample; the numeric ID remains the durable source key if names change. The city row itself was updated 2026-04-14; that date belongs to the source record, not to every transport or visitor detail in the real destination.
Within the fixed 1,206-record atlas, Bulawayo ranks 829 by recorded population. Inside the 2 selected Zimbabwe entries it ranks 2; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 174. Its 665,952 population value is 0.60 times the 1,104,383 median for the country cohort and 0.74 times the 902,588 regional median. Bulawayo is rank 2 among the 2 selected Zimbabwe entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Bulawayo's recorded value is materially below the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Bulawayo's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Harare at 366.219 km with 1,542,813 recorded people; Lusaka at 528.363 km with 2,212,301 recorded people; Soshanguve at 593.952 km with 872,309 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 227.733 km. Compared with Harare, Bulawayo's recorded population is 0.43 times as large. Against Bulawayo, Harare follows Harare → Zimbabwe in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Zimbabwe cohort, uses the shared Africa/Harare identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Bulawayo's. Against Bulawayo, Lusaka follows Lusaka Province → Zambia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Zambia cohort rather than Zimbabwe, uses Africa/Lusaka instead of Africa/Harare, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Bulawayo's. Against Bulawayo, Soshanguve follows City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality → Gauteng → South Africa in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected South Africa cohort rather than Zimbabwe, uses Africa/Johannesburg instead of Africa/Harare, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Bulawayo's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,152 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Bulawayo's nearest-coordinate gap belongs to the wider half of atlas distances. This pattern can reveal whether other catalog references are geographically close, but it cannot establish whether a border crossing is possible or practical, or whether rail, road, fare, or journey-time connections exist. Read as one record signature, GeoNames 894701, the coordinate pair 20.1500 / 28.5833, country rank 2 of 2, and neighbor GeoNames 890299 at 366.219 km bind Bulawayo to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Bulawayo's reference point is 20.1500° south and 28.5833° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Harare is shared by 2 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Bulawayo's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Bulawayo's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Bulawayo's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Bulawayo, so the profile preserves that missing value instead of guessing terrain. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Bulawayo's closest other entries in this atlas are Harare (366.219 km), Lusaka (528.363 km), Soshanguve (593.952 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Bulawayo, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-14; the atlas checked the dataset 2026-08-04. Available Wikidata fields were verified in the same run.
GeoNames data: CC BY 4.0. Wikidata labels and descriptions: CC0 1.0.