1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Zambia
Compare this sourced profile of Lusaka, Zambia 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 Lusaka—2,212,301, Africa/Lusaka, 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 of Zambia.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Lusaka is GeoNames ID 909137. Its recorded administrative path is Lusaka Province → Zambia, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. Lusaka 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 2025-10-26; 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, Lusaka ranks 179 by recorded population. Inside the 3 selected Zambia entries it ranks 1; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 36. Its 2,212,301 population value is 3.32 times the 665,961 median for the country cohort and 2.45 times the 902,588 regional median. Lusaka is rank 1 among the 3 selected Zambia entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Lusaka'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.
Lusaka's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Ndola at 274.802 km with 627,503 recorded people; Kitwe at 289.69 km with 665,961 recorded people; Harare at 399.161 km with 1,542,813 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 124.359 km. Compared with Ndola, Lusaka's recorded population is 3.53 times as large. Against Lusaka, Ndola follows Copperbelt → Zambia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Zambia cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lusaka identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Lusaka's. Against Lusaka, Kitwe follows Copperbelt → Zambia in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Zambia cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lusaka identifier, and carries populated place rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Lusaka's. Against Lusaka, Harare follows Harare → Zimbabwe in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Zimbabwe cohort rather than Zambia, uses Africa/Harare instead of Africa/Lusaka, and carries the same capital of a political entity class. Its recorded population is below Lusaka's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,095 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Lusaka'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 909137, the coordinate pair 15.4067 / 28.2871, country rank 1 of 3, and neighbor GeoNames 901344 at 274.802 km bind Lusaka to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Lusaka's reference point is 15.4067° south and 28.2871° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Lusaka is shared by 3 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. Lusaka's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Lusaka's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Lusaka's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Lusaka, 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
Lusaka's closest other entries in this atlas are Ndola (274.802 km), Kitwe (289.69 km), Harare (399.161 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Lusaka, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2025-10-26; 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.