1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Kenya
Compare this sourced profile of Nairobi, Kenya 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 Nairobi—4,397,073, Africa/Nairobi, 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 Kenya.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Nairobi is GeoNames ID 184745. Its recorded administrative path is Nairobi County → Kenya, and GeoNames classifies the place as a capital of a political entity. Nairobi 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 2023-12-21; 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, Nairobi ranks 73 by recorded population. Inside the 5 selected Kenya entries it ranks 1; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 14. Its 4,397,073 population value is 3.64 times the 1,208,333 median for the country cohort and 4.87 times the 902,588 regional median. Nairobi is rank 1 among the 5 selected Kenya entries, so a percentage band would overstate this small cohort. Nairobi'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.
Nairobi's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Ruiru at 22.09 km with 490,120 recorded people; Nakuru at 136.498 km with 570,674 recorded people; Arusha at 232.13 km with 617,631 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 210.04 km. Compared with Ruiru, Nairobi's recorded population is 8.97 times as large. Against Nairobi, Ruiru follows Kiambu County → Kenya in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Kenya cohort, uses the shared Africa/Nairobi identifier, and carries populated place rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Nairobi's. Against Nairobi, Nakuru follows Nakuru County → Kenya in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Kenya cohort, uses the shared Africa/Nairobi identifier, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Nairobi's. Against Nairobi, Arusha follows Arusha City → Arusha → Tanzania in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Tanzania cohort rather than Kenya, uses Africa/Dar_es_Salaam instead of Africa/Nairobi, and carries first-order administrative seat rather than capital of a political entity. Its recorded population is below Nairobi's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 277 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Nairobi'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 184745, the coordinate pair 1.2833 / 36.8167, country rank 1 of 5, and neighbor GeoNames 181032 at 22.09 km bind Nairobi to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Nairobi's reference point is 1.2833° south and 36.8167° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Nairobi is shared by 5 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLC is shared by 129 rows. Nairobi's row carries a first-order administrative label but no second-order label. Nairobi's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Nairobi's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Nairobi, 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
Nairobi's closest other entries in this atlas are Ruiru (22.09 km), Nakuru (136.498 km), Arusha (232.13 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Nairobi, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2023-12-21; 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.