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Juba, capital of South Sudan: facts and figures

Juba is the capital of South Sudan. It has about 450,000 residents, which makes it the 137th most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 510 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Kampala, 513 km away.

Key figures

FigureValue
CountrySouth Sudan
ContinentAfrica
City population450,000 residents
World rank by population137th of 172
Elevation510 m
Founded1922
Time zoneAfrica/Juba
Coordinates4.85° N, 31.58° E
Country population12,188,788 residents
Country GDP12 billion US dollars
GDP per capita$1,080
Life expectancy57.7 years
Internet users6.7 %
Big Mac pricenot reported

Climate through the year

Juba averages 30.5 °C from December to February and 26.4 °C from June to August. August is the coldest month of the year and March the warmest, and the city receives 693 mm of precipitation in an average year.

Monthly means from ERA5 reanalysis, 2015 to 2024.
MonthMean temperature
January30.1 °C
February31.5 °C
March31.7 °C
April29.7 °C
May28.2 °C
June27.1 °C
July26.2 °C
August26.0 °C
September26.6 °C
October27.2 °C
November28.2 °C
December29.8 °C

What makes it stand out

  • Winter: mildest capital in the world (30.5 °C).
  • Age: 3rd most recently founded capital in Africa (1922).

Nearest capitals

Distances are great-circle distances between city centres, which is what the Capitals game measures when it tells you how far a guess was from the answer. Kampala is the closest capital to Juba.

CapitalCountryDistance
KampalaUganda513 km
KigaliRwanda774 km
NairobiKenya897 km
Addis AbabaEthiopia917 km
GitegaBurundi939 km

How to remember it

Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Juba to a place and a number you already know: it is 513 km from Kampala, and it is the 137th largest capital in the atlas. Then practise retrieving it. DailyGeo Capitals gives you one mystery capital a day with distance, direction, language and population clues, the memorising method explains the review schedule, and the capitals index lists all 172.

To see how South Sudan compares with every other country on figures like these, the richest countries by GDP per capita ranks them on geopolitix, a country-ranking game by the same maker as DailyGeo.

Sources

  • City population and coordinates: DailyGeo's own game data, the same figures the Capitals game plays with. Population follows the urban area rather than the commune, which is why no density is quoted.
  • Temperature and rainfall: ten-year means (2015 to 2024) computed from ERA5 reanalysis, retrieved through Open-Meteo. Hersbach, H., et al. (2020). The ERA5 global reanalysis. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.
  • Elevation: terrain height at the city's coordinates in the Copernicus DEM, read through Open-Meteo rather than taken from a curated claim.
  • Time zone: resolved from the same coordinates.
  • Country figures: the World Bank, latest reported year for each series: Country GDP, GDP per capita, Country population, Life expectancy, Internet users.
  • Founding date: Wikidata, earliest recorded founding claim.
  • This capital elsewhere: Wikipedia, UNdata, Wikidata.
  • Method and limits: How this data was collected explains how each figure was collected and what it does not cover.

The short answer

Juba is the capital of South Sudan, in Africa, with about 450,000 residents, averaging 30.5 °C from December to February and 26.4 °C from June to August.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the capital of South Sudan?

Juba is the capital of South Sudan. It has about 450,000 residents and lies in Africa.

How many people live in Juba?

About 450,000, which ranks Juba 137th of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.

What is the weather like in Juba?

Juba averages 30.5 °C from December to February and 26.4 °C from June to August, with 693 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.

How expensive is Juba?

GDP per capita in the country is $1,080, the latest year the World Bank reports.

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