1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
United States
Compare this sourced profile of Raleigh, United States 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 Raleigh—482,295, America/New_York, 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 the U.S. state of North Carolina and seat of Wake County.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Raleigh is GeoNames ID 4487042. Its recorded administrative path is Wake County → North Carolina → United States, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Raleigh 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, Raleigh ranks 1,191 by recorded population. Inside the 43 selected United States entries it ranks 43; inside the 198 entries in its broad region it ranks 196. Its 482,295 population value is 0.62 times the 780,995 median for the country cohort and 0.59 times the 816,326 regional median. Raleigh sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected United States entries. Raleigh'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.
Raleigh's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Charlotte at 208.559 km with 911,311 recorded people; Washington, D.C. at 375.026 km with 689,545 recorded people; Baltimore at 430.058 km with 585,708 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 221.499 km. Compared with Charlotte, Raleigh's recorded population is 0.53 times as large. Against Raleigh, Charlotte follows Mecklenburg County → North Carolina → United States in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected United States cohort, uses the shared America/New_York identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Raleigh's. Against Raleigh, Washington, D.C. follows District of Columbia → United States in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected United States cohort, uses the shared America/New_York identifier, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Raleigh's. Against Raleigh, Baltimore follows City of Baltimore → Maryland → United States in the source. Its point has higher latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected United States cohort, uses the shared America/New_York identifier, and carries second-order administrative seat rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Raleigh's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,016 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Raleigh'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 4487042, the coordinate pair 35.7721 / 78.6386, country rank 43 of 43, and neighbor GeoNames 4460243 at 208.559 km bind Raleigh to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Raleigh's reference point is 35.7721° north and 78.6386° west. The IANA identifier America/New_York is shared by 15 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Raleigh's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Raleigh's point falls in the middle-latitude coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Raleigh's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames records Raleigh at 96 metres above sea level, a single reference value rather than a description of slopes across the city. Together these fields form a reproducible identity check for this page, not a claim about walkability, climate or accessibility.
03Nearby atlas references
Raleigh's closest other entries in this atlas are Charlotte (208.559 km), Washington, D.C. (375.026 km), Baltimore (430.058 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Raleigh, 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.