People


South Africa's population

South Africa is a nation of diversity, with nearly 52-million people and a wide variety of cultures, languages and religious beliefs.

According to Census 2011, the country's population stands at 51.77-million, up from the census 2001 count of 44.8-million.

Africans are in the majority, making up 79.2% of the population; coloured and white people each make up 8.9% of the total; and the Indian/Asian population 2.5%. "Other" population group makes up 0.5% of the total.

AT A GLANCE

According to the Census 2011 data from Statistics South Africa, in 2011 the country's population was 51 770 560, of which 26 581 769 (51.3%) were female and 25 188 791 (48.7%) were male.

Africans are in the majority at just over 41-million, making up 79.2% of the total population. The coloured population is 4 615 401 (8.9%), while there are 4 586 838 (8.9%) whites. The Indian/Asian population stands at 1 286 930 (2.5%). In 2011, "other" was included in the Census, and accounts for 280 454 or 0.5% of the total.

SA's POPULATION: CENSUS 2011
Population group Number % of total
African 41 000 938 79.2%
White 4 586 838 8.9%
Coloured 4 615 401 8.9%
Indian/Asian 1 286 930 2.5%
Other 280 454 0.5%
TOTAL 51 770 560 100%

Source: Statistics South Africa

There have been three official censuses since South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, the first in 1996, the second in 2001, and the third conducted in October 2011. The population in 1996 was 40.6-million, increasing by 10.4% to 44.8-million in 2001. The population grew by 15.5%, or almost 7-million people, in the space of 10 years to reach a total of 51.7-million in 2011.

BY PROVINCE

The provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal account for 42% of South Africa�s population, with Gauteng taking top spot as the most populous province from KwaZulu-Natal: 12.3 million people (23,7%) live in Gauteng, while 10.3 million (19.8%) live in KwaZulu-Natal.

They are followed by the Eastern Cape with 6.56-million (12.7%), the Western Cape with 5.82-million (11.3%), Limpopo with 5.4-million (10.4%), Mpumalanga with 4.04-million (7.8%), North West with 3.51- million (6.8%), and Free State with 2.75-million (5.3%).

Although the Northern Cape is the largest province, at almost a third of South Africa's land area, it is an arid region with the smallest population � only 1.15-million people, or 2.2% of the total.

POPULATION BY PROVINCE 2011
Province Population % of total
Eastern Cape 6 562 053 12.7%
Free State 2 745 590 5.3%
Gauteng 12 272 263 23.7%
KwaZulu-Natal 10 267 300 19.8%
Limpopo 5 404 868 10.4%
Mpumalanga 4 039 939 7.8%
Northern Cape 1 145 861 2.2%
North West 3 509 953 6.8%
Western Cape 5 822 734 11.3%
TOTAL 51 770 560 100%

Source: Statistics South Africa

Comparing the three sets of census data, the provincial share of the total population has fallen in the Eastern Cape (from 15.1% in 1996 to 12.7% in 2011). The fastest growing province is the Western Cape, growing by 29% between 2006 and 2011. Gauteng's population grew by 31% to 12.8-million people by 2011, up from 9.4- million a decade ago.

Around 1-million people have moved to Gauteng in the past decade, highlighting the flow of people from rural to urban areas. Only 56% of people living in Gauteng today were born there.

POPULATION GROUPS

The African population is made up of four broad groupings:

  • The Nguni, comprising the Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi people
  • The Sotho-Tswana, who include the Southern, Northern and Western Sotho (Tswana people)
  • The Tsonga
  • The Venda

White South Africans include:

  • Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch, German and French Huguenot who came to the country from the 17th century onwards.
  • English-speakers, descendants of settlers from the British Isles who came to the country from the late 18th century onwards.
  • Immigrants and descendents of immigrants from the rest of Europe, including Greeks, Portuguese, Eastern European Jews, Hungarians and Germans.

"Coloured" South Africans (the label is contentious) are a people of mixed lineage descended from slaves brought to the country from east and central Africa, the indigenous Khoisan who lived in the Cape at the time, indigenous Africans and whites. The majority speak Afrikaans.

Khoisan is a term used to describe two separate groups, physically similar in being light-skinned and small in stature. The Khoi, who were called Hottentots by the Europeans, were pastoralists and were effectively annihilated; the San, called Bushmen by the Europeans, were hunter-gatherers. A small San population still lives in South Africa.

The majority of South Africa's Asian population is Indian in origin, many of them descended from indentured workers brought to work on the sugar plantations of what was then Natal in the 19th century. They are largely English-speaking, although many also retain the languages of their origins. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans.

LANGUAGES

South Africa is a multilingual country. Its new democratic constitution, which came into effect on 4 February 1997, recognises 11 official languages, to which it guarantees equal status. These are:

  • Afrikaans
  • English
  • isiNdebele
  • isiXhosa
  • isiZulu
  • Sesotho sa Leboa
  • Sesotho
  • Setswana
  • siSwati
  • Tshivenda
  • Xitsonga

Besides the official languages, scores of others � African, European, Asian and more � are spoken in South Africa, as the country lies at the crossroads of southern Africa.

According to the 2011 census, isiZulu is the most common home language is, spoken by just over 20% of the population. It is followed by isiXhosa at 16%, Afrikaans at 13.5%. and English and Setswana each at 8.2%.

The number of people who speak English as a first language has increased by more than 1-million, to 4.9-million people, or 9.6% of the population.

Sepedi is the home language of 9.1% of South Africans, followed by Setswana at 8%, Sesotho at 7.6%, and Xitsonga at 4.5%.

SOUTH AFRICAN LANGUAGES � 2011
Language Number of speakers* % of total
Afrikaans 6 855 082 13.5%
English 4 892 623 9.6%
IsiNdebele 1 090 223 2.1%
IsiXhosa 8 154 258 16%
IsiZulu 11 587 374 22.7%
Sepedi 4 618 576 9.1%
Sesotho 3 849 563 7.6%
Setswana 4 067 248 8%
Sign language 234 655 0.5%
SiSwati 1 297 046 2.5%
Tshivenda 1 209 388 2.4%
Xitsonga 2 277 148 4.5%
Other 828 258 1.6%
TOTAL 50 961 443** 100%

* Spoken as a home language

** Unspecified and not applicable excluded
Source: Statistics SA

Most South Africans are multilingual, able to speak more than one language. English- and Afrikaans-speaking people tend not to have much ability in indigenous languages, but are fairly fluent in each other's language. A large number of South Africans speak English, which is ubiquitous in official and commercial public life. The country's other lingua franca is isiZulu.

SouthAfrica.info reporter and MediaClubSouthAfrica.com � get free high-resolution photos and professional feature articles from Brand South Africa's media service.

Updated October 2015

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