1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Brazil
Compare this sourced profile of Fortaleza, Brazil 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 Fortaleza—2,400,000, America/Fortaleza, 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: human settlement in Brazil.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Fortaleza is GeoNames ID 3399415. Its recorded administrative path is Fortaleza → Ceara → Brazil, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Fortaleza 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 2026-04-13; 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, Fortaleza ranks 159 by recorded population. Inside the 48 selected Brazil entries it ranks 5; inside the 198 entries in its broad region it ranks 18. Its 2,400,000 population value is 3.16 times the 758,563 median for the country cohort and 2.94 times the 816,326 regional median. Fortaleza falls inside the leading tenth of this atlas's Brazil population cohort. Fortaleza's recorded value reaches at least twice the country-cohort median in this snapshot. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Fortaleza's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Natal at 435.687 km with 896,708 recorded people; Teresina at 496.189 km with 871,126 recorded people; João Pessoa at 555.558 km with 817,511 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 119.871 km. Compared with Natal, Fortaleza's recorded population is 2.68 times as large. Against Fortaleza, Natal follows Natal → Rio Grande do Norte → Brazil in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Brazil cohort, uses the shared America/Fortaleza identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Fortaleza's. Against Fortaleza, Teresina follows Teresina → Piaui → Brazil in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Brazil cohort, uses the shared America/Fortaleza identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Fortaleza's. Against Fortaleza, João Pessoa follows Joao Pessoa → Paraiba → Brazil in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Brazil cohort, uses the shared America/Fortaleza identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Fortaleza's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,168 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Fortaleza'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 3399415, the coordinate pair 3.7172 / 38.5431, country rank 5 of 48, and neighbor GeoNames 3394023 at 435.687 km bind Fortaleza to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Fortaleza's reference point is 3.7172° south and 38.5431° west. The IANA identifier America/Fortaleza is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Fortaleza's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Fortaleza's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Fortaleza's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Fortaleza, 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
Fortaleza's closest other entries in this atlas are Natal (435.687 km), Teresina (496.189 km), João Pessoa (555.558 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Fortaleza, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-13; 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.