1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Colombia
Compare this sourced profile of Santa Marta, Colombia 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 Santa Marta—499,192, America/Bogota, 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 of the Colombian department of Magdalena.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Santa Marta is GeoNames ID 3668605. Its recorded administrative path is Santa Marta → Magdalena Department → Colombia, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Santa Marta 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 2026-04-13; 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, Santa Marta ranks 1,150 by recorded population. Inside the 12 selected Colombia entries it ranks 10; inside the 198 entries in its broad region it ranks 188. Its 499,192 population value is 0.70 times the 716,066 median for the country cohort and 0.61 times the 816,326 regional median. Santa Marta sits in the lower half of this atlas's selected Colombia entries. Santa Marta'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.
Santa Marta's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Barranquilla at 70.742 km with 1,206,319 recorded people; Valledupar at 133.997 km with 490,075 recorded people; Cartagena at 169.884 km with 914,552 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 99.142 km. Compared with Barranquilla, Santa Marta's recorded population is 0.41 times as large. Against Santa Marta, Barranquilla follows Barranquilla → Atlantico → Colombia in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Colombia cohort, uses the shared America/Bogota identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Santa Marta's. Against Santa Marta, Valledupar follows Valledupar → Cesar Department → Colombia in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Colombia cohort, uses the shared America/Bogota identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Santa Marta's. Against Santa Marta, Cartagena follows Cartagena de Indias → Bolivar → Colombia in the source. Its point has lower latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the same selected Colombia cohort, uses the shared America/Bogota identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is above Santa Marta's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 558 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Santa Marta'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 3668605, the coordinate pair 11.2386 / 74.1943, country rank 10 of 12, and neighbor GeoNames 3689147 at 70.742 km bind Santa Marta to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Santa Marta's reference point is 11.2386° north and 74.1943° west. The IANA identifier America/Bogota is shared by 12 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Santa Marta's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Santa Marta's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Santa Marta's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Santa Marta, 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
Santa Marta's closest other entries in this atlas are Barranquilla (70.742 km), Valledupar (133.997 km), Cartagena (169.884 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Santa Marta, confirm changing decisions with current first-party sources:
Read how City Atlas Club verifies changing travel facts →05Sources and freshness
GeoNames updated the row 2026-04-13; 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.