1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
South Africa
Compare this sourced profile of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa 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 Pietermaritzburg—839,327, Africa/Johannesburg, 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 KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Pietermaritzburg is GeoNames ID 965301. Its recorded administrative path is uMgungundlovu District Municipality → KwaZulu-Natal → South Africa, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Pietermaritzburg 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, Pietermaritzburg ranks 670 by recorded population. Inside the 12 selected South Africa entries it ranks 8; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 132. Its 839,327 population value is 0.87 times the 961,194 median for the country cohort and 0.93 times the 902,588 regional median. Pietermaritzburg sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected South Africa entries. Pietermaritzburg'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.
Pietermaritzburg's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Durban at 67.041 km with 3,338,026 recorded people; Bloemfontein at 408.652 km with 556,637 recorded people; Evaton at 423.986 km with 725,468 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 356.945 km. Compared with Durban, Pietermaritzburg's recorded population is 0.25 times as large. Against Pietermaritzburg, Durban follows eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality → KwaZulu-Natal → South Africa in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected South Africa cohort, uses the shared Africa/Johannesburg identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Pietermaritzburg's. Against Pietermaritzburg, Bloemfontein follows Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality → Free State → South Africa in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected South Africa cohort, uses the shared Africa/Johannesburg identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Pietermaritzburg's. Against Pietermaritzburg, Evaton follows Sedibeng District Municipality → Gauteng → South Africa in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected South Africa cohort, uses the shared Africa/Johannesburg identifier, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Pietermaritzburg's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 540 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Pietermaritzburg's nearest-coordinate gap sits in the second quarter 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 965301, the coordinate pair 29.6168 / 30.3928, country rank 8 of 12, and neighbor GeoNames 1007311 at 67.041 km bind Pietermaritzburg to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Pietermaritzburg's reference point is 29.6168° south and 30.3928° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Johannesburg is shared by 12 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Pietermaritzburg's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Pietermaritzburg's point falls in the lower-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Pietermaritzburg's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Pietermaritzburg, 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
Pietermaritzburg's closest other entries in this atlas are Durban (67.041 km), Bloemfontein (408.652 km), Evaton (423.986 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Pietermaritzburg, 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.