🇿🇦 Cities in South Africa — API & JSON data

Geomelon's South Africa coverage: 3,348 cities across 9 regions, with name translations in 24 languages — start with City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, the country's largest city at 4,949,347 people.

Data updated: 2026-07-14

Live demo

Type to search South Africa cities…

Top 10 cities by population

CityRegionPopulation
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan MunicipalityGauteng4,949,347
JohannesburgGauteng4,434,827
City of Cape TownWestern Cape4,005,016
Cape TownWestern Cape3,776,313
eThekwini Metropolitan MunicipalityKwaZulu-Natal3,702,231
City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan MunicipalityGauteng3,379,104
City of Tshwane Metropolitan MunicipalityGauteng3,275,152
SowetoGauteng1,271,628
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan MunicipalityEastern Cape1,263,051
Buffalo City Metropolitan MunicipalityEastern Cape834,997

Sample API response

GET /cities/search?countryCode=za&sort=population_desc&limit=3

[
  {
    "id": "7464688f-a479-452b-bc97-658e059df8be",
    "name": "City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality",
    "population": 4949347,
    "countryName": "South Africa",
    "countryCode": "ZA",
    "countryEmoji": "🇿🇦",
    "regionName": "Gauteng"
  },
  {
    "id": "7f78b608-e61d-4781-904d-64d963bd4a31",
    "name": "Johannesburg",
    "population": 4434827,
    "countryName": "South Africa",
    "countryCode": "ZA",
    "countryEmoji": "🇿🇦",
    "regionName": "Gauteng"
  },
  {
    "id": "230c80d7-86af-4595-9e03-a949a5e5a24f",
    "name": "City of Cape Town",
    "population": 4005016,
    "countryName": "South Africa",
    "countryCode": "ZA",
    "countryEmoji": "🇿🇦",
    "regionName": "Western Cape"
  }
]

Try it

curl --request GET \
  --url 'https://geomelon.p.rapidapi.com/cities/search?countryCode=za&sort=population_desc&limit=10' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-host: geomelon.p.rapidapi.com' \
  --header 'x-rapidapi-key: YOUR_API_KEY'

Multilingual city names

City names in South Africa are available in 24 languages.

Free dataset

Prefer a static file? Download 114 South Africa cities as JSON (17 KB, no API key) from the South Africa cities dataset page.

FAQ

How many cities in South Africa does the API return?

Geomelon currently has 3,348 cities in South Africa across 9 regions. Results are paginated, up to 100 per request.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. RapidAPI's free tier covers a fixed number of requests per month with no credit card required. There is also a free, no-key city-autocomplete endpoint (the demo above) for prefix search.

Can I get South Africa city names in other languages?

Yes — city names in South Africa are available in 24 languages. Pass the languages you want via the preferredLanguages parameter, most-preferred first.

Do I need an API key?

The main search and lookup endpoints require a free RapidAPI key. The prefix-search autocomplete endpoint used in the demo above is public and does not require a key.

Try free on RapidAPI

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