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Polokwane, 
South Africa
451,786 people lived in Polokwane in 2025. It is the 1233rd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the 11th largest in South Africa.
Like every city on this site, Polokwane is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Polokwane grew
Where Polokwane had 10 people in 2000, it had 62 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 458,724 people in 2050. It passed 250,000 people between 2010 and 2015. The UN first counts it as a city in 2000, when it passed 50,000 people.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Polokwane through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Polokwane in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
South Africa · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: every dot is one of the 95 cities in South Africa in 2025, and a dot's area is how many people live there, the biggest being Johannesburg. The ringed dot in colour is Polokwane; the grey dots are the rest. The outlines around them are neighbouring countries.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Polokwane covered 115 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 27 km² of it. That is 60 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 8 by 8 metres. Since 2000, its built-up land has grown to 5.8 times its size, and its people are 6.2 times as many.
How to read this: each pale square is the city's whole area, the strong square inside it the part that is built on; one scale for all three, so a bigger square is more land. Hatched is the UN's projection.
Of every 100 people in South Africa
Its share of South Africa
Of every 1,000 people in South Africa in 2025, 7 lived in Polokwane, which is 451,786 people.
How to read this: shrink South Africa to 1,000 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Polokwane; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 1229 Catania Italy453,376
- 1230 Shashamane Ethiopia452,945
- 1231 Maturin Venezuela452,835
- 1232 Jiangyang China452,500
- 1233 Polokwane451,786
- 1234 Haripur Pakistan451,578
- 1235 Ilesa Nigeria450,464
- 1236 Basti India450,449
- 1237 Vijayapura India450,192
In South Africa, 2025
- 688 Evaton773,229
- 824 Gqeberha661,220
- 1056 Masetjhaba View522,402
- 1115 Bloemfontein496,295
- 1233 Polokwane451,786
- 1264 Chief Albert Luthuli Park441,204
- 1668 Edendale342,930
- 1986 Kanyamazane292,211
- 2148 Kimberley271,078
How to read this: names are in order of size, the leading number being each city's rank among all 12,138 in 2025; the bars share a scale within a list. A jump in the ranks means a city under 300,000 people, which is not given a page here.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Polokwane are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 2000 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Polokwane publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries