---
title: "South Africa — capital, area, population and currency"
description: "South Africa: capital Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial), area 1,219,090 km², population 64,747,319 (2025), currency South A"
url: https://atoneplace.net/country/south-africa/
site: "At One Place"
---

# South Africa

**South Africa: Capital Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial)**

1,219,090 km² · 64,747,319 people (2025) · South African rand

One of only a handful of countries with more than one capital, and the only one with three. The Vredefort Dome south-west of Johannesburg is the largest verified impact crater on Earth, about 300 km across and 2 billion years old. The Cape Floral Region packs roughly 9,000 plant species into a small corner of the country, most of them found nowhere else.

## The facts

- **Capital:** Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial)
- **Largest city:** Johannesburg
- **Area:** 1,219,090 km² — 470,693 sq mi
- **Population:** 64,747,319 (2025)
- **Density:** 53.1 people per km²
- **Currency:** South African rand (ZAR, R)
- **Official languages:** Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
- **Time zone:** UTC+02:00
- **Calling code:** +27
- **Drives on the:** left
- **ISO codes:** ZA · ZAF
- **Continent:** Africa

## How it compares

- **By area:** 25 of 200
- **By population:** 24 of 200

> Population is the only figure on this page that dates — it is a 2025 estimate and will drift. Area, capital, currency, languages, calling code and driving side change rarely or never.

## Countries of a similar size

| Country | Area (km²) | Population |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Angola | 1,246,700 | 39,040,039 |
| Mali | 1,240,192 | 25,198,821 |
| South Africa ← | 1,219,090 | 64,747,319 |
| Colombia | 1,138,910 | 53,425,635 |
| Ethiopia | 1,104,300 | 135,472,051 |

## Common questions

### What is the capital of South Africa?

Pretoria (administrative); Cape Town (legislative); Bloemfontein (judicial)

### What currency does South Africa use?

The South African rand (ZAR).

### How big is South Africa?

1,219,090 km², or 470,693 square miles — 25 of 200 by area.

### Which side of the road does South Africa drive on?

The left.

## Related pages

- [Angola](https://atoneplace.net/country/angola/)
- [Mali](https://atoneplace.net/country/mali/)
- [Colombia](https://atoneplace.net/country/colombia/)
- [Ethiopia](https://atoneplace.net/country/ethiopia/)
- [Nigeria](https://atoneplace.net/country/nigeria/)
- [Ethiopia](https://atoneplace.net/country/ethiopia/)
- [Egypt](https://atoneplace.net/country/egypt/)
- [Democratic Republic of the Congo](https://atoneplace.net/country/democratic-republic-of-the-congo/)
- [Tanzania](https://atoneplace.net/country/tanzania/)
- [Kenya](https://atoneplace.net/country/kenya/)
- [Sudan](https://atoneplace.net/country/sudan/)
- [Uganda](https://atoneplace.net/country/uganda/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]
- World Bank Open Data — The World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/) [CC BY 4.0]