SA's population by province
South Africa's largest provincial population is in KwaZulu-Natal, with just over 10-million people (20.9% of the total population of 47.9-million), according to mid-2007 estimates by Statistics South Africa.
The most densely populated of South Africa's nine provinces, however, is Gauteng, with some 9.6-million people (20.2% of the total population) occupying just 1.4% of the country's land area.
The most sparsely populated, with just over 1.1-million people (2.3% of the population), is the arid Northern Cape - which takes up a whopping 29.7% of the country's land area.
The mid-2007 population estimates for all nine provinces are:
- Eastern Cape - 6.9-million (14.4%)
- Free State - 2.9-million (6.2%)
- Gauteng - 9.6-million (20.2%)
- KwaZulu-Natal - 10-million (20.9%)
- Limpopo - 5.4-million (11.3%)
- Mpumalanga - 3.5-million (7.4%)
- Northern Cape - 1.1-million (2.3%)
- North West - 3.4-million (7.1%)
- Western Cape - 4.8-million (10.1%)
Perhaps surprisingly in a country with comparatively few major urban centres and a great deal of wide open space, slightly more than 50% of South Africa's population live in urban areas.
This is not only because of the number of rural people who have moved to towns to find work, but also because much of that open space is dry and arid.
The most rural province in South Africa is Limpopo. Gauteng, with both Johannesburg and Pretoria within its boundaries, is almost entirely urban. Other areas of high urban concentration are around Cape Town in the Western Cape, Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, Port Elizabeth and East London in the Eastern Cape and, in the interior, Bloemfontein in the Free State.
Languages
The languages you will hear most frequently spoken in South Africa depend on where in the country you are.
Overall - according to the more comprehensive statistics of the 2001 census - isiZulu (23.8%) is the most commonly spoken home language, followed by isiXhosa (17.6%), Afrikaans (13.3%), Sepedi (9.4%), Setswana (8.2%) and English (8.2%).
IsiXhosa is spoken by more than 80% of South Africans in the Eastern Cape, while almost 80% of people in KwaZulu-Natal speak isiZulu. IsiZulu is also the most frequently spoken home language in Gauteng, but at a much smaller percentage. In Cape Town and its surrounds, Afrikaans comes into its own.
Predominant languages by province (census 2001 figures, rounded off) are:
- Eastern Cape - isiXhosa (83%), Afrikaans (9%)
- Free State - Sesotho (64%), Afrikaans (12%)
- Gauteng - isiZulu (21%), Afrikaans (14%), Sesotho (13%), English (12%)
- KwaZulu-Natal - isiZulu (81%), English (13%)
- Limpopo - Sepedi (52%), Xitsonga (22%), Tshivenda (16%)
- Mpumalanga - siSwati (31%), isiZulu (26%), isiNdebele (12%)
- Northern Cape - Afrikaans (68%), Setswana (21%)
- North West - Setswana (65%), Afrikaans (7%)
- Western Cape - Afrikaans (55%), English (19%), isiXhosa (23%)
Article last updated: September 2007
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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