Global CityIntelligence

South Africa / Africa

Cape Town City Intelligence

Cape Town is a coastal South African city known for striking natural surroundings, a deep tourism and creative-industry presence, and active work on energy and water resilience. Cape Town is a africa city of about 4.8M metro in South Africa. On the composite city-intelligence score, Cape Town sits around the indexed median (74/100).

Last updated
2026-05-16
Data year
2025
Population
4.8M metro
View of Cape Town, South Africa

Image credit: Image: Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Visual context

Additional verified imagery for Cape Town, South Africa. Each photo is sourced from Wikimedia Commons with full attribution and a permissive license.

Overall score

Cape Town is most useful for users comparing outdoor amenity, cultural depth, and resilience progress against energy-supply variability and water-cycle pressure.

Overall74/100
Affordability76/100
Air quality78/100
Energy70/100

Overall city intelligence

Good

74/100

Strong outdoor amenity and cultural depth with energy and water-cycle pressure to manage.

Outdoor amenity

Very high

Coastal and mountain access supports a strong quality of daily life.

Water resilience

Active

Drought-cycle planning is integrated into urban operations.

Cape Town data table

The table is part of the initial server-rendered HTML and mirrors the key city score cards.

Cape Town city intelligence data table
MetricValueContext
Overall score74/100Composite score across major city intelligence modules.
Cost of Living76/100Cape Town offers comparatively favorable affordability for a major coastal city, with rising rent pressure in central neighborhoods.
Air Quality78/100Cape Town has solid baseline air quality, with episodic regional and biomass-burning events as the main exposure spikes.
Energy70/100Cape Town has solid renewable potential and active local transition work, balanced by national grid-supply variability.
Safety64/100Cape Town has mid-tier safety with strong neighborhood variation; resident experience differs widely across districts and time of day.
Internet Speed76/100Cape Town has solid fiber broadband and reliable mobile coverage, supporting a growing remote-work and tourism-services presence.
Climate Risk66/100Cape Town faces meaningful climate exposure from drought, heat, and wildfire pressure, balanced by active adaptation programs.
Resilience72/100Climate adaptation and infrastructure continuity context.

Safety

Deterministic safety estimates from our index — planning signals derived from country priors and city data, not official crime statistics.

Safety

Overall safety46/100
Low crime47/100
Personal safety47/100
Night safety38/100
Road safety50/100

Cape Town scores below average for safety in our index (46/100); research neighborhoods and take standard precautions.

Quality of Life

A composite quality-of-life estimate and its component indicators.

Quality of Life

Quality of life59/100
Healthcare61/100
Education68/100
Green space46/100
Cleanliness55/100
Infrastructure66/100
Mobility61/100

Cape Town has a moderate quality-of-life estimate (59/100) across our combined indicators.

Family Friendliness

How the city scores for raising a family, with the indicators that drive it.

Family Friendliness

Family friendliness56/100
Education68/100
Green space46/100
Overall safety46/100

Cape Town scores moderate for family living (56/100).

Digital Nomad Suitability

Suitability for remote workers, based on connectivity, mobility, and livability.

Digital Nomad Suitability

Digital nomad suitability67/100
Walkability80/100
Cycling64/100
Infrastructure66/100

Cape Town is moderate for remote workers (67/100), based on connectivity, affordability and walkability and day-to-day amenities.

Retirement Suitability

Suitability for retirement, weighing healthcare, affordability, climate, and environment.

Retirement Suitability

Retirement suitability61/100
Healthcare61/100
Cleanliness55/100
Outdoor lifestyle30/100

Cape Town is moderate for retirement (61/100), appealing for affordability and a comfortable climate.

Emergency and public safety in Cape Town

Local public safety guidance for Cape Town, with the country-level emergency contacts that apply when calling for police, fire, or ambulance.

Unverified

For the universal emergency contacts that apply in Cape Town, including police, fire, and ambulance, see the South Africa emergency profile, which currently lists no verified national contacts.

Methodology and the wider source registry are documented on the scoring methodology and data sources pages.

Healthcare and hospitals in Cape Town

Healthcare context for Cape Town, with national-level information from South Africa where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only and does not provide medical advice.

Unverified

For the national healthcare and public-health context that applies in Cape Town, see the South Africa healthcare profile, which currently lists no verified national healthcare information.

Related sections: emergency and public safety, scoring methodology, and data sources.

Transport and mobility in Cape Town

Local mobility context for Cape Town, with national-level context from South Africa where city-specific data is not yet verified. This is informational only.

Unverified

For national transport authorities and operators that apply in Cape Town, see the South Africa transport profile, which currently lists no verified national transport information.

Related sections: emergency and public safety, healthcare and hospitals, cities directory, countries directory, scoring methodology, data sources.

Air quality dataset

Source-attributed air-quality dataset for Cape Town. Verified measurements are surfaced when published from accepted official datasets; transparent fallback is shown otherwise.

Air quality dataset for Cape Town

Verified data unavailableLast updated 2026-05-16 / data year 2025

Verified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location

Source-attributed values for Cape Town will appear here after the platform integrates verified measurements from accepted official publishers. Until then, structured air-quality module context remains available on the dedicated module page.

Cape Town air-quality dataset coverage
MetricValueData yearStatus
Air qualityVerified air-quality measurements are not yet published for this location.

Data provenance

Source attribution

  • Global City Intelligence — air-quality dataset

    Verified data unavailable
    Publisher
    Global City Intelligence
    Last verified
    2026-05-16

    The air-quality dataset begins empty by design. Verified city-level measurements appear here only after they are sourced from accepted publishers (WHO, EEA, US EPA, OpenAQ, OECD, or official national/city environmental agencies).

Related comparisons

Pairs that share a city, comparison intent, or region — useful for users planning a wider relocation, remote-work, or business decision.

Explore Cape Town modules

City pages link to module and ranking pages so crawlers can move through the topic cluster naturally.

Cost of Living in Cape Town

Cape Town offers comparatively favorable affordability for a major coastal city, with rising rent pressure in central neighborhoods.

Air Quality in Cape Town

Cape Town has solid baseline air quality, with episodic regional and biomass-burning events as the main exposure spikes.

Energy in Cape Town

Cape Town has solid renewable potential and active local transition work, balanced by national grid-supply variability.

Safety in Cape Town

Cape Town has mid-tier safety with strong neighborhood variation; resident experience differs widely across districts and time of day.

Internet Speed in Cape Town

Cape Town has solid fiber broadband and reliable mobile coverage, supporting a growing remote-work and tourism-services presence.

Climate Risk in Cape Town

Cape Town faces meaningful climate exposure from drought, heat, and wildfire pressure, balanced by active adaptation programs.

City rankings

Compare this city against other indexed cities in crawlable ranking tables.

Cost of living in Cape Town

Cost of living estimates for Cape Town — monthly budgets, rent, food, and transport in the local currency, plus an affordability score for comparison. Planning estimates derived from country baselines, not live prices.

Climate in Cape Town

Climate profile for Cape Town — Semi-Arid climate, annual average 20.8°C, comfort score 79/100. Month-by-month temperatures, rainfall, sunshine, and the best months to visit. Deterministic planning estimates, not a forecast.

Economy and jobs in Cape Town

Economy and jobs profile for Cape Town — tourism economy, economy score 58/100, key industries including manufacturing, tourism, mining. Employment, salary, startup, remote-work, and career indicators. Deterministic planning estimates.

Universities and education in Cape Town

Education profile for Cape Town — regional education center, education score 62/100, 6 representative universities, plus research, student life, and international-student indicators. Deterministic dataset, not institutional rankings.

Healthcare and retirement in Cape Town

Healthcare and retirement profile for Cape Town — mixed healthcare profile, healthcare score 57/100, retirement score 63/100. Medical access, specialist and emergency care, affordability, and retirement suitability. Deterministic planning estimates.

Estimate a monthly budget for Cape Town

Estimate a monthly budget for Cape Town using your own housing, food, transport, healthcare, and lifestyle inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official cost-of-living measurement.

Plan a trip budget for Cape Town

Plan a trip budget for Cape Town using your own accommodation, food, local transport, activities, travel, healthcare buffer, and emergency buffer inputs. Planning estimator only — not an official travel cost estimate.

Nearby cities from Cape Town

Where else nearby you could spend a day or a weekend from Cape Town. Links are derived from geographic proximity, shared region, shared natural-recreation areas, transport corridors, and country borders — not popularity or tourism rankings.

Gaborone, Botswana

Cross-border · about 1263 km from Cape Town. Explore Gaborone's city intelligence profile.

Windhoek, Namibia

Cross-border · about 1273 km from Cape Town. Explore Windhoek's city intelligence profile.

Durban, South Africa

Weekend trip · about 1274 km from Cape Town. Explore Durban's city intelligence profile.

Interpretation

Cape Town is most useful for users comparing outdoor amenity, cultural depth, and resilience progress against energy-supply variability and water-cycle pressure. Its standout dimensions are air quality (78/100) and cost of living (76/100). The area most worth watching is safety (64/100), where the model registers practical gaps. Data year 2025; last updated 2026-05-16. Drawn from 4 institutional references.

Country context is available on the South Africa country page. Related rankings include Overall Intelligence, Quality of Life, Remote Work. See where Cape Town appears in global rankings or read the scoring methodology.

Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation. Verified datasets are being integrated; official sources should be used for critical decisions.

Sources

4 institutional references inform this view, listed below with reliability notes. Structured indicators on this page are directional and intended for orientation; verified datasets are being integrated and official sources should be used for critical decisions.