SA’s population has risen by 10 million

South Africa’s population has grown by over 10 million in the past decade.

Statistics South Africa yesterday unveiled the Census 2022 data, indicating that the country’s population has surpassed 62 million, inclusive of foreigners. This is a significant rise of nearly 10.4 million since the 2011 Census.

The data further revealed that women constitute 51.5% of the population. Gauteng, with a population of 15 million, remains the most populous province.

Over 1.3 million people migrated to Gauteng from Limpopo, while another 1.1 million came from abroad.

The Eastern Cape saw 1.1 million of its residents move to the Western Cape and just under 500 000 to Gauteng.

The report stated that “half of all international migrants (50.2%) resided in Gauteng, followed by about 16% in the Western Cape”.

Regarding racial demographics, black citizens constituted 81.4% of the population, coloureds 8.2%, whites 7.3%, and Indians 2.7%.

The census reported over 2.4 million foreigners, making up about 3% of the total population.

Notably, 1 million foreigners hailed from Zimbabwe, followed by Mozambique, Lesotho, Malawi, the UK, India and Nigeria.

“Anyone who was within the borders of the country irrespective of their legal status or whether they were documented or undocumented were counted,” StatsSA Census project director Calvin Molongoana said.

In terms of language, isiZulu and isiXhosa were the most spoken at home, with 24.4% and 16.3%, respectively. Also, more residents spoke Afrikaans at home than English.

Mpumalanga and Limpopo had the highest number of unschooled individuals, while Gauteng and the Western Cape reported the lowest, and also led in tertiary education completion, with 18% and 16.2%, respectively.

On the housing front, SA now boasts 17 million homes, up from 14 million in 2011.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal together account for half of the country’s homes.

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