1,206-CITY ATLASSOURCE-BACKED CITY REFERENCE
Nigeria
Compare this sourced profile of Sokoto, Nigeria 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 Sokoto—1,040,000, Africa/Lagos, 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: a city in Nigeria, capital of Sokoto State.
02This city's dataset fingerprint
The source row behind Sokoto is GeoNames ID 2322911. Its recorded administrative path is Sokoto North → Sokoto → Nigeria, and GeoNames classifies the place as a first-order administrative seat. Sokoto 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, Sokoto ranks 516 by recorded population. Inside the 30 selected Nigeria entries it ranks 12; inside the 243 entries in its broad region it ranks 105. Its 1,040,000 population value is 1.12 times the 930,000 median for the country cohort and 1.15 times the 902,588 regional median. Sokoto sits in the second quarter of this atlas's Nigeria population cohort. Sokoto'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.
Sokoto's three nearest other atlas coordinates are Katsina at 255.634 km with 670,000 recorded people; Niamey at 342.776 km with 1,323,691 recorded people; Zaria at 346.057 km with 980,000 recorded people. The closest-to-farthest distance spread is 90.423 km. Compared with Katsina, Sokoto's recorded population is 1.55 times as large. Against Sokoto, Katsina follows Katsina → Katsina State → Nigeria in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Nigeria cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lagos identifier, and carries the same first-order administrative seat class. Its recorded population is below Sokoto's. Against Sokoto, Niamey follows Niamey → Niger in the source. Its point has higher latitude and lower longitude; it belongs to the selected Niger cohort rather than Nigeria, uses Africa/Niamey instead of Africa/Lagos, and carries capital of a political entity rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is above Sokoto's. Against Sokoto, Zaria follows Sabon Gari → Kaduna State → Nigeria in the source. Its point has lower latitude and higher longitude; it belongs to the same selected Nigeria cohort, uses the shared Africa/Lagos identifier, and carries populated place rather than first-order administrative seat. Its recorded population is below Sokoto's. Its nearest-neighbor distance ranks 1,076 of 1,206 from shortest to longest in the same snapshot. Sokoto'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 2322911, the coordinate pair 13.0627 / 5.2432, country rank 12 of 30, and neighbor GeoNames 2334802 at 255.634 km bind Sokoto to a reproducible comparison. That combined key distinguishes the row; it is not a recommendation or evidence of a physical connection.
Sokoto's reference point is 13.0627° north and 5.2432° east. The IANA identifier Africa/Lagos is shared by 30 city rows in this catalog, while the GeoNames class PPLA is shared by 429 rows. Sokoto's row carries both second- and first-order administrative labels. Sokoto's point falls in the near-equatorial coordinate band used by this atlas's row checks. Sokoto's time-zone field defines the narrower catalog cohort; its place class is shared more broadly. GeoNames supplies no elevation for Sokoto, 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
Sokoto's closest other entries in this atlas are Katsina (255.634 km), Niamey (342.776 km), Zaria (346.057 km).
04Verify before you book
Before visiting Sokoto, 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.