SA's population at 48.5 million
Shaun Benton
25 October 2007The country's population is estimated to have grown by eight million over the past 10 years, while progress has been made in improving basic service delivery, Statistics South Africa finds.
Stats SA's 2007 Community Survey shows that there has been an 8.2% increase in the country’s population, which now stands at 48.5 million.
Statistician-general Pali Lehohla presented the results of the survey to President Thabo Mbeki, Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Wednesday.
Lehohla said the survey revealed what South Africans as a whole have to say around service delivery.
Mbeki welcomed the results, saying that they were encouraging and showed that the government was making progress in its efforts to improve the quality of life of South Africans.
He pointed out that the information in the report around service delivery rollout was an important read, and urged fellow Cabinet members and other government officials to study the results of the survey carefully.
"Do whatever you can to accelerate progress," he said.
A total of 246 618 dwellings were covered and 949 105 persons were counted, while key socio-economic data was extracted at national to provincial and municipal level.
The survey shows that between 2001 and 2007 the Western Cape showed the highest rate of population growth of 16.1%, while Gauteng was close behind, with a 13.9% increase in population between 2001 and 2007.
Statistics around education show positive results, with findings revealing that the percentage of the population aged 20 years and older with no formal schooling had declined from 17.9% in 2001 to 10.3% in 2007. In addition, almost 28% of the population aged 20 years and older has completed at least secondary education.
Improving service delivery
An assessment of the use of electricity for household lighting showed that electricity
usage has increased across all provinces, with 80% of households in South Africa now using electricity to light their homes.
This figure was not applicable across all the provinces, however, with the survey revealing that electrical lighting use in the provinces of Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal was below the national average, while almost 94% of inhabitants in the Western Cape had access to electricity.
By the beginning of this year 88.6% of South Africa's population had access to piped water, with all provinces showing an increase. However, as is the case with electrification, access to water in the Eastern Cape, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal provinces was below the national average.
Sanitation facilities were also assessed by community survey, which showed that just over 60% of South African households had access to a flush toilet by this year. Free State had the highest number of households still using the bucket sanitation system.
More than half of households in Limpopo, some 56.3%, used a pit latrine without ventilation, while 25.2% of households in the Eastern Cape had no toilet facilities at all.
The survey also showed that ownership of radios, television sets, computers, fridges and cellphones had increase considerably since the 2001 Census.
There was a dramatic increase in computer ownership. The figure has almost doubled in the six years since the 2001 census, with 15.7% ownership by this year compared with 8.5% ownership in 2001.
By this year, 7.3% of South African households had Internet facilities.
More predictably, the demand for landline telephones showed a decrease owing to the high penetration of cell phones, usage of which had grown from 32.3% in 2001 to 72.9% by this year.
Source: BuaNews
