World Postal Code > Worldwide Administrative Divisions > South Africa Administrative Divisions
South Africa Administrative Divisions
What is the hierarchy of administrative divisions in South Africa?
Here’s a breakdown of the hierarchy:
1. Provinces: South Africa is divided into 9 provinces.
2. Metropolitan and district municipalities: Each province is subdivided into metropolitan and district municipalities.
3. Local municipalities: Local municipalities are the smallest administrative units.
List of South Africa's administrative divisions with their counts and names
These are the summarized administrative divisions. The full dataset is available in the Download Center.
iso | country | admin level 1 | admin level 2 | admin level 3 | admin level 4 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ZA | South Africa | Eastern Cape (Province) | 2 Metropolitan municipalities, 6 District Municipalities | 12 Main places, 31 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Free State (Province) | 1 Metropolitan municipality, 4 District Municipalities | 18 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Gauteng (Province) | 2 District Municipalities, 3 Metropolitan municipalities | 157 Main places, 6 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | KwaZulu-Natal (Province) | 10 District Municipalities, 1 Metropolitan municipality | 233 Main places, 43 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Limpopo (Province) | 5 District Municipalities | 22 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Mpumalanga (Province) | 3 District Municipalities | 17 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Northern Cape (Province) | 5 District Municipalities | 26 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | North West (Province) | 4 District Municipalities | 18 Local Municipalities | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
ZA | South Africa | Western Cape (Province) | 1 Metropolitan municipality, 5 District Municipalities | 24 Local Municipalities, 67 Main places | This level doesn’t exist for this country. |
Why is building an Administrative Divisions Database complex?
The complexity arises from inconsistent global standards, frequent boundary changes, non-uniform naming conventions (e.g., “suburb” in Australia vs. “county” in the US), and variations in administrative levels across countries. Integrating and harmonizing data from multiple sources requires advanced normalization, versioning, and geospatial validation techniques.
How does GeoPostcodes solve the problem for you?
Our standardized database overcomes the complexity of different administrative division
systems worldwide. Our database follows a unified structure that you can integrate
seamlessly into your system or platform of choice without needing to become an expert in
each country’s unique administrative hierarchy.
Download the complete Dataset
Explore the comprehensive list of administrative divisions, standardized and scalable across 247 countries.
Why work with us?
- 247 countries
- Always up-to-date
- Complex geographies
- Standardized and unified data structure
- Consistent city definitions
- Seamless integration
- Global address format expertise
- 1500 local sources
- 15 years of experience
“The GeoPostcodes dataset is well curated and well maintained. Their team invests time in collating information from around the world, putting it into consistent formats, and keeping it updated. We can download the latest version of their data according to timescales that suit us and then go from there.”
Senior Software Enginer
Nick Beaugié
“Having postal boundary visualization works much better for customers than putting things in a table.”
Product Owner, Geographic Information Services
William Chao

Request a personalized quote
Interested in the full database? Ask for a quote.
Our pricing model depends on a few factors such as products, features, use case and country coverage.
Get in touch to receive an accurate pricing proposal.
Annual licenses are priced based on the number of countries needed, type of usage, products and the features (additional datasets).
Our licenses have a fixed price and include everything: comprehensive location data, unlimited updates, the right to use our data in all your systems or products, and continuous support from a dedicated expert.
Data is updated weekly, but you can decide on your own update frequency depending on your use case. You can get automatic differential updates and a list of historical ID changes by using our download API.