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Capitals of the world
Pretoria, capital of South Africa: facts and figures
Pretoria is the capital of South Africa. It has about 2,500,000 residents, which makes it the 62nd most populous capital of the 172 in DailyGeo's atlas, and it sits 1,327 m above sea level. Its nearest neighbouring capital is Gaborone, 260 km away.
Key figures
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Country | South Africa |
| Continent | Africa |
| City population | 2,500,000 residents |
| World rank by population | 62nd of 172 |
| Elevation | 1,327 m |
| Founded | 1855 |
| Time zone | Africa/Johannesburg |
| Coordinates | 25.75° S, 28.19° E |
| Country population | 64,747,319 residents |
| Country GDP | 427.2 billion US dollars |
| GDP per capita | $6,598 |
| Life expectancy | 66.3 years |
| Internet users | 78.4 % |
| Big Mac price | ZAR 56.90 (about $3.49) |
Climate through the year
Pretoria averages 13.3 °C in winter and 22.0 °C in summer. July is the coldest month of the year and January the warmest, and the city receives 558 mm of precipitation in an average year.
| Month | Mean temperature |
|---|---|
| January | 22.1 °C |
| February | 21.9 °C |
| March | 20.8 °C |
| April | 17.9 °C |
| May | 15.4 °C |
| June | 12.3 °C |
| July | 12.2 °C |
| August | 15.5 °C |
| September | 19.2 °C |
| October | 20.8 °C |
| November | 21.5 °C |
| December | 22.1 °C |
What makes it stand out
- Latitude: 3rd southernmost capital in Africa (25.75°).
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. Gaborone is the closest capital to Pretoria.
| Capital | Country | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Gaborone | Botswana | 260 km |
| Maseru | Lesotho | 402 km |
| Maputo | Mozambique | 439 km |
| Harare | Zimbabwe | 929 km |
| Lusaka | Zambia | 1,152 km |
How to remember it
Reading a figure once rarely fixes it in memory. Attach Pretoria to a place and a number you already know: it is 260 km from Gaborone, and it is the 62nd 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 Africa compares with every other country on figures like these, the most expensive Big Mac index 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.
- Big Mac price: The Economist's Big Mac index, from its published dataset. The index covers about 55 economies, so most capitals here have no figure.
- 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
Pretoria is the capital of South Africa, in Africa, with about 2,500,000 residents, averaging 13.3 °C in winter and 22.0 °C in summer.
Turn the reading into recall. A new capital and country are waiting today.
Play today's DailyGeo puzzleFrequently asked questions
What is the capital of South Africa?
Pretoria is the capital of South Africa. It has about 2,500,000 residents and lies in Africa.
How many people live in Pretoria?
About 2,500,000, which ranks Pretoria 62nd of the 172 capitals in DailyGeo's atlas by city population.
What is the weather like in Pretoria?
Pretoria averages 13.3 °C in winter and 22.0 °C in summer, with 558 mm of precipitation a year. These are ten-year means from ERA5 reanalysis.
How expensive is Pretoria?
A Big Mac costs ZAR 56.90 (about $3.49) there. GDP per capita in the country is $6,598, the latest year the World Bank reports.
Keep learning
- Gaborone, capital of Botswana: facts and figures
Gaborone is the capital of Botswana: 270,000 residents, 1,002 m above sea level, 15.2 °C in winter and 25.7 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Maseru, capital of Lesotho: facts and figures
Maseru is the capital of Lesotho: 330,000 residents, 1,557 m above sea level, 8.2 °C in winter and 20.1 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Maputo, capital of Mozambique: facts and figures
Maputo is the capital of Mozambique: 1,100,000 residents, 9 m above sea level, 19.9 °C in winter and 25.9 °C in summer. Key figures and sources.
- Capitals of the world: the full list by continent
Every capital in DailyGeo's atlas, grouped by continent, with population, elevation and winter and summer temperatures, each linking to its own data page.