1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Congo - Kinshasa
Compare this sourced profile of Kananga, Congo - Kinshasa 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 Kananga—1,247,168, Africa/Lubumbashi, 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: capital city of the Kasai-Central Province in DRC and capital of the former Kasaï-Occidental Province.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Kananga is GeoNames ID 214481. Its recorded administrative path is Kananga City → Kasai-Central → Congo - Kinshasa, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Kananga 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 2026-07-24; 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, Kananga ranks 416 by recorded population. Inside the 11 selected Congo - Kinshasa entries it ranks 4; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 86. Its 1,247,168 population value is 1.53 times the 816,811 median for the country cohort and 1.38 times the 902,588 regional median. Kananga sits in the second quarter of this atlas's Congo - Kinshasa population cohort. Kananga's recorded value is above the country-cohort median but remains below twice that benchmark. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Kananga's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Mbuji-Mayi at 132.447 km with 2,101,332 recorded people; Tshikapa at 187.844 km with 634,529 recorded people; Kikwit at 409.71 km with 509,367 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 277.263 km. Compared with Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga's recorded population is 0.59 times as large. Against Kananga, Mbuji-Mayi follows Mbuji-Mayi City → East Kasai → Congo - Kinshasa in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Congo - Kinshasa cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lubumbashi identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Kananga's. Against Kananga, Tshikapa follows Tshikapa City → Kasai → Congo - Kinshasa in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Congo - Kinshasa cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lubumbashi identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Kananga's. Against Kananga, Kikwit follows Kikwit → Kwilu → Congo - Kinshasa in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Congo - Kinshasa cohort, uses Africa/Kinshasa instead of Africa/Lubumbashi, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Kananga's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 825 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Kananga'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 214481, the coordinate pair 5.8962 / 22.4166, country rank 4 of 11, and neighbor GeoNames 209228 at 132.447 km bind Kananga to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Kananga's reference point is 5.8962° south and 22.4166° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Lubumbashi is shared by 8 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Kananga's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Kananga's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Kananga's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Kananga, 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
Kananga's closest other entries in this atlas are Mbuji-Mayi (132.447 km), Tshikapa (187.844 km), Kikwit (409.71 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Kananga, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-07-24; 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.