# Durban, South Africa

Canonical destination: bctl:durban
City profile: https://bestcitytolive.com/city/durban
API snapshot: bctl-destinations-47f0620be1025f8fa455
Catalog version: 2026-10-29

An editorial research destination catalog, not a best-city ranking or official Civometra quarterly result. Projected urban-footprint context is separate from municipal statistics, reviewed guides and V1 index evidence.

Profile: evidence-profile · guide-research-pending
Guide review: Not reviewed; local guide research pending.
A source-backed urban evidence profile. Local arrival, neighborhood, safety and service guidance has not been reviewed; no editorial guide date is assigned.

## Source-defined urban context
- Source footprint: 4787 · Durban
- Constituent source names: Durban
- Source country labels: GADM South Africa; UN WPP South Africa
- Edition: GHS-UCDB R2024A V1-2; morphological reference 2025
- Projected population (2025): 3270867.743 persons; original source literal 3270867.743
- Source footprint area (2025): 807 km2; original source literal 807
- Derived projected density: 4053.1198798017344 persons/km2 = 3270867.743 / 807
Publisher 2025 population projection from GHS-POP R2023A and morphological urban-footprint area; density is their ratio. Not a current census count, municipal population or livability score. Shared footprints repeat one contextual measurement, not independent city estimates.

Morphological urban centres are not municipalities or commuting functional urban areas. These contextual records are excluded from Civometra scoring.
Reference point: -29.842315098589314, 30.932373599754268. Publisher urban-footprint centroid transformed from ESRI:54009; contextual source point, not a separately reviewed city-center pin or municipal boundary.

## Original source and reproduction
Mari Rivero et al. (2024). GHS-UCDB R2024A – GHS Urban Centre Database 2025. European Commission, JRC. doi:10.2905/1a338be6-7eaf-480c-9664-3a8ade88cbcd. V1-2.
Publisher: European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Original dataset: https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/1a338be6-7eaf-480c-9664-3a8ade88cbcd
Original methodology: https://human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu/documents/GHSL_UCDB_R2024_V1_2.pdf
Population model: https://data.jrc.ec.europa.eu/dataset/2ff68a52-5b5b-4a22-8f40-c41da8332cfe
Original archive: https://bestcitytolive.com/data/source-frames/ghsl-ucdb-general-v1_2-bc879d823205.zip
Original archive SHA-256: bc879d82320504f89df2041b7936221c8239cd808abe93980493aed062b4f3d6
Native geometry WKB SHA-256: ec1d566cd67d717a3289e4430b5a0531355254642db2212b20e2ca3ddfc3c9ad
Native geometry validity: true; unchanged source validity is not scoring or boundary approval.
Source retrieved: 2026-10-26; retrieval is not an observation or guide-review date.
European Commission reuse notice: reuse authorised with source acknowledgement; underlying third-party terms remain applicable.

Shared physical source: ghsl-ucdb-r2024a-v1-2:4787
Other destination bindings: None in this catalog.
Repeated bindings to the same physical source footprint are not independent urban estimates.

## Ranking and guide coverage
No new overall score, ordinal rank, winner or official quarterly result is supplied. Inclusion is an editorial research choice, not assessed city merit.

No inherited score, V1 assessment or reviewed local dossier is assigned to this added destination.

## Machine-readable resource
https://bestcitytolive.com/api/v2/destinations/durban.json
Destination content SHA-256: ac087a2b3c0705897842c2a7205f4ac529eb7dfec3bfc8671e0f9d5f404aabab

Source acknowledgement and the original publisher terms apply. This API grants no new rights over third-party measurements. BestCityToLive owns its original editorial selection, code and derivations, not the underlying JRC or U.S. Census Bureau observations.