SouthAfrica.com: Demographics

Demographics of South Africa

South Africa is a land filled with variety and opportunity. There are more than 44 990 000 people currently living in this beautiful country and many of these fall into very different demographic groups. Though the country is currently experiencing a fairly high mortality rate due to AIDS, positive steps are being taken to combat this negative factor. It is estimated that there are currently more than 5 million people who are living with HIV or AIDS and this fact has definitely had a strong impact on the mortality rate in the country. Because of superstitions, it is very difficult to determine accurately just how many people are living with AIDS. Therefore it is very difficult to give an accurate mortality rate statistic for South Africa.

Generally speaking, those classified as ‘blacks’ are Africans who descended from the indigenous people, ‘whites’ are people of European descent, while coloreds are a mixed-race people who are descendents of early European settlers, their slaves and the country’s indigenous people. The majority of Asians living in South Africa are descendents of Indian workers who were brought to Africa to work on the sugar estates in Natal. Apart from these, South Africa also has small Chinese and Portuguese populations. There are also some San (Bushmen) living in remote parts of the country while a number of refugees and migrants have also come to South Africa in the hopes of making a better life for themselves.

Below you will find a quick list of various South African demographics for your convenience. The majority of figures have been taken from the 2007 estimates.

Age Structure
0-14 yrs: male 6,447,623; female 6,370,909
15-64 yrs: male 14,040,210; female 14,761,179
65 yrs and over: male 917,227; female 1,460,680

Birth Rate
17.94 births/1,000 population

Life Expectancy at Birth
Male: 43.21 yrs
Female: 41.66 yrs

Net Migration Rate
-0.16 migrants/1000 population

Gender Ratio
0.947 males/1 female

Literacy Rate (at age 15 and over) (2003)
Male: 87%
Female: 85.7%

Ethnic Groups (2001 census)
Black: 75.2%
White: 13.6%
Coloured 8.6%
Asian 2.6%

Religions (2001 census)
Other Christian 36%
None 14.9%
Zion Christian: 11.1%
Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%
Catholic 7.1%
Methodist 6.8%
Dutch Reformed 6.7%
Anglican 3.8%
Other 2%
Islam 1.5%
Unspecified 1.4%
Hinduism 1.2%
Judaism 0.3%

Languages
11 Official Languages: Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sesotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
Other languages: San, Portuguese, German, Hindi, Telugu, Gujarati, Tamil.

Largest Cities (from most populous to least populous)
1. Johannesburg, Gauteng
2. Durban, KwaZulu Natal
3. Cape Town, Western Cape
4. East Rand, Gauteng
5. Pretoria, Gauteng
6. Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape
7. East London, Eastern Cape
8. Vereeniging, Gauteng
9. Bloemfontein, Free State
10. Thohoyandou, Limpopo