Cape Town — UN urban centre
Cape Town: 4,508,921 people. Reference: 2025 annual estimate · World rank #93 of 12,138 source urban centres. Source: UN DESA, World Urbanization Prospects 2025 (CC BY 3.0 IGO). Source identifier: 413; territory: South Africa (ZAF). UN source workbook.
Method: Degree of Urbanisation (contiguous 1 km2 cells, density 1,500+ people/km2, total 50,000+). This is a source-defined urban centre, not a municipality or province. No association with a separate administrative entity is inferred from proximity or name.
Source centroid: -33.9805, 18.6. National context uses World Bank estimates, a separate series and geography; no national share is inferred here.
UN population series
| Year | People | Method |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | 983,713 | Estimate |
| 1980 | 1,259,733 | Estimate |
| 1985 | 1,602,869 | Estimate |
| 1990 | 1,821,959 | Estimate |
| 1995 | 2,130,458 | Estimate |
| 2000 | 2,427,022 | Estimate |
| 2005 | 2,750,198 | Estimate |
| 2010 | 3,072,960 | Estimate |
| 2015 | 3,455,322 | Estimate |
| 2020 | 4,076,992 | Estimate |
| 2025 | 4,508,921 | Estimate |
| 2030 | 4,892,959 | Projection |
| 2035 | 5,224,375 | Projection |
| 2040 | 5,558,275 | Projection |
| 2045 | 5,843,782 | Projection |
| 2050 | 6,127,476 | Projection |
Largest UN urban centres · Fastest-growing urban centres
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