1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Mozambique
Compare this sourced profile of Matola, Mozambique 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 Matola—1,198,988, Africa/Maputo, 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.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Matola is GeoNames ID 1039854. Its recorded administrative path is Maputo Province → Mozambique, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Matola 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, Matola ranks 447 by recorded population. Inside the 4 selected Mozambique entries it ranks 2; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 91. Its 1,198,988 population value is 1.22 times the 984,684 median for the country cohort and 1.33 times the 902,588 regional median. Matola is rank 2 among the 4 selected Mozambique entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Matola's recorded value stays within one quarter of the country-cohort median used here. These comparisons describe this selected dataset only; they are not current census rankings or official urban-area boundaries.
Matola's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Maputo at 12.435 km with 1,254,837 recorded people; Benoni at 414.05 km with 605,344 recorded people; Thembisa at 423.034 km with 511,655 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 410.599 km. Compared with Maputo, Matola's recorded population is 0.96 times as large. Against Matola, Maputo follows Maputo City → Mozambique in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Mozambique cohort, uses the shared Africa/Maputo identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Matola's. Against Matola, Benoni follows Ekurhuleni 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 Mozambique, uses Africa/Johannesburg instead of Africa/Maputo, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Matola's. Against Matola, Thembisa follows Ekurhuleni 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 Mozambique, uses Africa/Johannesburg instead of Africa/Maputo, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Matola's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 179 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Matola's nearest-coordinate gap falls between the tightest tenth and quarter of the atlas. 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 1039854, the coordinate pair 25.9622 / 32.4589, country rank 2 of 4, and neighbor GeoNames 1040652 at 12.435 km bind Matola to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Matola's reference point is 25.9622° south and 32.4589° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Maputo is shared by 4 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Matola's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Matola's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Matola's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Matola, 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
Matola's closest other entries in this atlas are Maputo (12.435 km), Benoni (414.05 km), Thembisa (423.034 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Matola, 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.