1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Tanzania
Compare this sourced profile of Mbeya, Tanzania 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 Mbeya—541,603, Africa/Dar_es_Salaam, 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 Tanzania.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Mbeya is GeoNames ID 154380. Its recorded administrative path is Mbeya City → Mbeya → Tanzania, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Mbeya 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, Mbeya ranks 1,038 by recorded population. Inside the 6 selected Tanzania entries it ranks 6; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 215. Its 541,603 population value is 0.73 times the 737,494 median for the country cohort and 0.60 times the 902,588 regional median. Mbeya is rank 6 among the 6 selected Tanzania entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Mbeya'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.
Mbeya's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Dodoma at 394.567 km with 765,179 recorded people; Lilongwe at 564.613 km with 1,115,815 recorded people; Dar es Salaam at 681.295 km with 5,383,728 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 286.728 km. Compared with Dodoma, Mbeya's recorded population is 0.71 times as large. Against Mbeya, Dodoma follows Dodoma Urban District → Dodoma → Tanzania in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Tanzania cohort, uses the shared Africa/Dar_es_Salaam identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Mbeya's. Against Mbeya, Lilongwe follows Lilongwe District → Central Region → Malawi in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the selected Malawi cohort rather than Tanzania, uses Africa/Blantyre instead of Africa/Dar_es_Salaam, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Mbeya's. Against Mbeya, Dar es Salaam follows Ilala → Dar es Salaam Region → Tanzania in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Tanzania cohort, uses the shared Africa/Dar_es_Salaam identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Mbeya's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,162 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Mbeya'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 154380, the coordinate pair 8.9000 / 33.4500, country rank 6 of 6, and neighbor GeoNames 160196 at 394.567 km bind Mbeya to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Mbeya's reference point is 8.9000° south and 33.4500° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Dar_es_Salaam is shared by 6 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Mbeya's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Mbeya's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Mbeya's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Mbeya, 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
Mbeya's closest other entries in this atlas are Dodoma (394.567 km), Lilongwe (564.613 km), Dar es Salaam (681.295 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Mbeya, 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.