Formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. With a population estimated around 2,500,000, it is also the country’s richest city and a regionally important economic centre.

The population is increasing at a rate of 4.47% annually (the 3rd fastest in the world) and the metro population is expected to reach 4.06 million by 2015 (Demographia.com). Though Dar es Salaam lost its official status as capital city to Dodoma in the mid-1970s, it remains the centre of the permanent central government bureaucracy and continues to serve as the capital for the surrounding Dar es Salaam Region.

Dar es Salaam is located at 6°48′ South, 39°17′ East (-6.8000, 39.2833). [1] It lies on the East Coast of Africa on the Indian ocean. Administratively, Dar es Salaam is broken into 3 districts: Ilala, Kinondoni, and Temeke.
Dar is Tanzania’s most important city for both business and government. The city contains unusually high concentrations of trade and other services and manufacturing compared to other parts of Tanzania, which has about 80 percent of its population in rural areas. For example, about one half of Tanzania’s manufacturing employment is located in the city despite the fact that Dar holds only ten percent of Tanzania’s population. Located on a natural harbour on the Indian Ocean, it is the hub of the Tanzanian transportation system as all of the country’s main railways and several highways originate in or near the city. Its status as an administrative and trade centre has put Dar es Salaam in position to benefit disproportionately from Tanzania’s high growth rate since the year 2000 so that by now its poverty rates are much lower than the rest of the country. The Dar es Salaam Airport connects the city with other African countries, the Middle East as well as Europe.

The growth of industry is hampered by several factors, including uneven supplies of electricity, an increasingly overburdened infrastructure, and corruption which makes operation of business difficult.