Johannesburg

This article is about the city in South Africa. For other uses, see Johannesburg (disambiguation).
"eGoli" redirects here. For other uses, see Goli (disambiguation) and Egoli (disambiguation).

Johannesburg
City
City of Johannesburg
Johannesburg CBD
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Hillbrow Tower and Ponte City
Nelson Mandela Bridge
FNB Stadium
University of the Witwatersrand
Brixton Tower
Flag of Johannesburg
Flag
Coat of arms of Johannesburg
Coat of arms
Nickname(s): 
Jo'burg; Jozi; Muḓi Mulila Ngoma (Venda version), Joni (Tsonga version); Jobhag (Bhojpuri version);[2] Egoli ("Place of Gold");[3] Gauteng ("Place of Gold")
Motto: 
"Service with Pride"[4]
OpenStreetMap
Map
Johannesburg is located in Gauteng
Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg is located in South Africa
Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg is located in Africa
Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Coordinates: 26°12′16″S 28°2′44″E / 26.20444°S 28.04556°E / -26.20444; 28.04556
CountrySouth Africa
ProvinceGauteng
MunicipalityCity of Johannesburg
Established1886; 138 years ago (1886)[5]
Government
 • TypeMetropolitan municipality
 • MayorDada Morero (ANC)
Area
[6][7]
 • City334.81 km2 (129.27 sq mi)
 • Urban
[8]
3,357 km2 (1,296 sq mi)
 • Metro
1,642.6 km2 (634.2 sq mi)
Elevation
1,753 m (5,751 ft)
Population
 (2023)[6][7]
 • City5,635,000
 • Rank8th in Africa
1st in South Africa
 • Density17,000/km2 (44,000/sq mi)
 • Urban
[8]
7,860,781[a]
 • Metro
 (2022)
6,198,000
 • Metro density3,800/km2 (9,800/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2019)
[9]
 • Black African76.4%
 • White12.3%
 • Coloured5.6%
 • Indian/Asian4.9%
 • Other0.8%
First languages (2011)
[6]
 • Zulu23.41%
 • English20.10%
 • Sesotho9.61%
 • Setswana7.68%
 • Afrikaans7.28%
 • Other18.10%
Time zoneUTC+2 (SAST)
Postal code (street)
2001
PO box
2000
Area code010 and 011
HDIIncrease 0.75 High (2012)[10]
GDPUS$131 billion (2020)[11]
GDP per capita (PPP)US$16 370 (2014)[11]
Websitewww.joburg.org.za

Johannesburg (/dʒoʊˈhænɪsbɜːrɡ/ joh-HAN-iss-burg, US also /-ˈhɑːn-/ -⁠HAHN-, Afrikaans: [jʊəˈɦanəsbœrχ]; Zulu and Xhosa: eGoli [ɛˈɡɔːli]) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold")[12][13] is the most populous city in South Africa with 4,803,262 people,[7] and is classified as a megacity;[14] it is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world.[15] It is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa.[16] Johannesburg is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the highest court in South Africa.[17] Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located within the mineral-rich Witwatersrand hills, the epicentre of the international-scale mineral, gold and (specifically) diamond trade.

Johannesburg was established in 1886,[18] following the discovery of gold, on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold deposits found along the Witwatersrand,[19] within ten years, the population had grown to over 100,000 inhabitants. A separate city from the late 1970s until 1994, Soweto is now part of the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan area. An acronym for "South-Western Townships", Soweto was organised initially as a collection of nondescript settlements on the outskirts of the city, populated mostly by African labourers working in the gold mining industry. Soweto, although eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, had been explicitly separated as a residential area for blacks only—no whites allowed—who were not permitted to live in other "white-designated" areas of Johannesburg. Another region, Lenasia, is predominantly populated by English-speaking Indo-South Africans (people of Indian and South Asian descent). These areas were, in previous decades, designated as non-white areas, in accordance with apartheid policies of the time.

Johannesburg was one of the host cities of the official tournament of the 2010 FIFA World Cup including the final.

The metropolis is an alpha global city, as listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. In 2019, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 5,635,127, making it the most populous city in South Africa.[9] In the same year, the population of metro Johannesburg's urban agglomeration was put at 8 million.[9] Land area of the municipal city (1,645 km2 or 635 sq mi) is large in comparison with those of other major cities, resulting in a moderate population density of 2,364 per square kilometre (6,120/sq mi).

  1. ^ "Place Names of Pre-colonial Origin and their Use Today". 2 August 2012. Archived from the original on 7 October 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  2. ^ "Chilli city". 14 November 2010. Archived from the original on 27 November 2022. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
  3. ^ "Egoli definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  4. ^ "Johannesburg (South Africa)". Retrieved 7 October 2023.
  5. ^ Robson, Linda Gillian (2011). "Annexure A" (PDF). The Royal Engineers and settlement planning in the Cape Colony 1806–1872: Approach, methodology and impact (PhD thesis). University of Pretoria. pp. xlv–lii. hdl:2263/26503. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  6. ^ a b c "Johannesburg". Census 2011. Archived from the original on 7 September 2016. Retrieved 27 November 2017.
  7. ^ a b c Census 2022: Provinces at a Glance (PDF) (Report). Statistics South Africa. 2023. pp. 36, 73. ISBN 978-0-621-51559-6.
  8. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference citypop was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ a b c "Population of Johannesburg". Archived from the original on 20 September 2019. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
  10. ^ "Gauteng's Human Development Index" (PDF). Gauteng City-Region Observatory. 2013. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 January 2015. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  11. ^ a b Top 150 richest cities in the world (Report). 11 March 2020. Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
  12. ^ "Johannesburg: The City of Gold". Johannesburg: The City of Gold. 22 October 2019. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  13. ^ "The history of Joburg, City of Gold". SouthAfrica.net. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  14. ^ "Major Agglomerations of the World". CityPopulation.de. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
  15. ^ Th. Brinkhoff (23 January 2010). "Principal Agglomerations of the World". Citypopulation.de. Archived from the original on 4 July 2010. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
  16. ^ "Johannesburg". Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  17. ^ Bhana, Deeksha (2018). "The Constitutional Court as the apex court for the common law of contract: Middle ground between the approaches of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal". South African Journal on Human Rights. 34: 8–32. doi:10.1080/02587203.2018.1432100. S2CID 149346012.
  18. ^ "Johannesburg | City, History, Map, & Points of Interest | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 3 September 2023. Retrieved 5 September 2023.
  19. ^ Ritchie, Kevin (2 July 2012). "A jubilee that truly sparkles". IOL. Archived from the original on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2019.


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