A late afternoon summer thunderstorm over Johannesburg, typical of the highveld climate, seen from the far north of the city. Joburg’s original city centre can be seen in the middle, on the far horizon, while the newer Sandton CBD is in the nearer distance, towards the left. (Ryanj93 / CC BY SA 4.0)

Click graphic to enlarge.

South Africa’s long coastline – some 2,800 kilometres – influences much of the climate. On the west coast is the cold Atlantic Ocean, and the warmer Indian Ocean on the south and east.

Starting at the hot and arid desert border with Namibia in the northwest, South Africa’s coastline runs south  down the cold Skeleton Coast, around the Cape Peninsula to Cape Agulhas. This is the southernmost tip of Africa, said to be where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet. In fact, it’s here, slightly offshore, that two coastal currents meet, currents that determine the different coastal climates. The cold Benguela current sweeps the west coast, and the warm Agulhas current the east.

From Cape Agulhas the coastline moves east and slowly northwards, and the climate becomes warmer and wetter. The Western Cape’s pretty green Garden Route gives way to the forested Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, and then humid subtropical KwaZulu-Natal coast, famous for its beaches. In the northeast, the coast reaches the border of Mozambique.

Running along most of the coast is a narrow low-lying strip of land, which soon gives way to a higher plateau – the Great Escarpment. The high altitude of South Africa’s interior means the country is generally much cooler than southern hemisphere countries at the same latitude, such as Australia.

 Sun and rain

Late afternoon sunshine falls on quiver trees in the dry scrubland of the Northern Cape. (South African Tourism / CC BY 2.0)

Data source: South African Weather Service

South Africa is famous for its sunshine – an average of 2,500 hours of sun every year. It’s a dry country, classified as semi-arid. The average annual rainfall for the whole of South Africa is about 464 mm. The world average is about 860mm.

Most of South Africa gets rain only in the summer. The region around the Cape Peninsula, including Cape Town, has a Mediterranean climate: cold and miserable rain in winter, balanced by glorious clear-sky summers. But Cape Town is most famous for its relentless year-round wind, which blows from either southeast or the northwest.

KwaZulu-Natal’s coast and areas of the Mpumalanga lowlands get warm rain all year.

The great inland Karoo plateau, where rocky hills rise from scrubland, is dry, and gets drier in the northwest towards the Kalahari desert. It’s a region of extremes: very hot in summer and icy in winter.

The eastern Karoo gives way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which gets a little more rain.

The highveld region north of the Vaal River is wetter, with milder weather and less extreme subtropical heat. Johannesburg lies at 1,740 metres above sea level, and has an annual rainfall of 760 millimetres. Winters on the highveld are cold, but snow is rare.

Further north and east the highveld drops down into the lowveld. Temperatures rise, and the land turns to typical bushveld, the habitat of South Africa’s wildlife.

South Africa is in the southern hemisphere, so midwinter is in the middle of the year and high summer in December and January.

Spring – September, October, November

In the early spring, flowers bloom across the arid landscape of the Namaqualand region of the Northern Cape. (South African Tourism / CC BY 2.0)

Click graphic to enlarge.

In spring South Africa warms up from the top down. It quickly gets very hot in the far north province of Limpopo, and the desert regions of the Northern Cape and North West.

The southwest stays cold and wet well into spring, typical of its Mediterranean climate. The coast in the south and west gradually gets more rain, and humidity rises.

In the rest of the country the weather gets pleasantly warm and sunny, before the summer rains begin.

The rains, generally mid-afternoon thundershowers, start in about mid-October.

Summer – December, January, February

Rain clouds build up over farmland in the Magaliesberg region of North West province towards the end of a warm summer’s day. (Storm Signal / CC BY SA 2.0)

Click graphic to enlarge.

Over much of South Africa, summer means warm, sunny weather – often with afternoon thunderstorms that clear quickly, leaving a warm and earthy smell in the air.

The arid regions of the central Karoo and Northern Cape get very hot, with some relief in more rain. Northern Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal are also often exhaustingly hot.

The Northern Cape – a province of weather extremes – gets the hottest weather, and the temperature records. In 1948 the mercury hit 51.7°C (125°F) in the Kalahari near the town of Upington.

The high altitude of the interior plateau keeps average summer temperatures below 30°C, so summer is warm without being oppressive.

Summer is the season of rain in most of South Africa, changing much of the country from khaki to green. It’s mostly warm rain, delivered in short and drenching storms. The Cape Peninsula in the southwest is the exception, staying clear-skied and sunny all through summer.

Autumn – March, April, May

The vineyards of the Constantia wine estate near Cape Town show their autumn colours. (Tim Snell / CC BY ND 2.0)

Click graphic to enlarge.

In autumn South Africa’s weather comes into its own. The days are still long and warm, getting chillier – but still brisk and sunny – in the early morning and evening.

The rainy season comes to an end in autumn, leaving the skies clear and the sun shining. By May most of South Africa has settled into its dry season, which will last through winter and well into spring.

Autumn comes at the end of the dry season on the Cape Peninsula, thanks to the region’s Mediterranean climate.

Here the autumn weather is beautiful, with hot sunny days and warm, balmy nights. It’s only in May, a month from winter, that the rains begin again.

Winter – June, July, August

Winter snow on the mountains surrounding the Hex River Valley in the Western Cape. Mountain snowfall generally means freezing conditions across the rest of the country. (Mary Alexander / CC BY SA 4.0)

Click graphic to enlarge.

South Africa’s winter is mostly pleasant sunny weather with cloudless blue skies, punctuated now and then by a few days of cold fronts.

In the high interior plateau winter days are dry and sunny, with clear skies and crisp air. The nights are chilly. Temperatures only drop to freezing when a cold front sweeps in.

Cold fronts mean heavy snow on the mountains of the Western Cape and Northern Cape, and on the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg. When it snows on the mountains, icy weather quickly spreads to the rest of the country.

The coldest place in South Africa is the Northern Cape town of Sutherland, in the western Roggeveld Mountains. Here midwinter temperatures can drop to -15°C (5°F).

The Western Cape gets all of its rain in winter. The winter weather in Cape Town is always cold, wet and unpleasantly windy.

By contrast, the hot, humid KwaZulu-Natal coast, and the lowveld of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces, offer lovely winter weather with still, sunny and warm days.

Researched and written by Mary Alexander.
Updated July 2025.
Comments? Email mary1alexander@gmail.com

The post South Africa’s weather and climate appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

The founding provisions of South Africa’s constitution recognise 12 official languages: Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi (also known as Sesotho sa Leboa), Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga and, since 2023, South African Sign Language or SASL.

During colonialism and apartheid official languages were European – Dutch, English and Afrikaans. African languages, spoken by at least 80% of the people, were ignored. In 1996 a new constitution gave official protection to all of the country’s major languages.

South Africa has about 34 historically established languages. Thirty are living languages and four extinct Khoesan (Khoisan) languages.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Jump to:

The 12 languages: overview and origins

South Africa’s 2022 census lists the languages most often spoken at home – the first or home language – of people aged one year and older.

IsiZulu is the largest language. According to the census, it’s the home language of almost a quarter (24.4%) of the population. Second is isiXhosa, spoken at home by 16.3%.

Afrikaans (10.6%) and Sepedi (10%) have roughly the same number of home language speakers, as do English (8.7%) and Setswana (8.3%).

Nationally, smaller official languages are Sesotho (7.8%), Xitsonga (4.7%), siSwati (2.8%), Tshivenda (2.5%) and isiNdebele (1.7%). But these languages are widely spoken in individual provinces.

Census 2022 estimates that South African Sign Language is used by fewer than 10,000 people – way under 0.1% of the population. But other estimates put its number of users at around 600,000. An official language since 2023, SASL is distinct from the hundreds of other sign languages deaf and hard of hearing people use elsewhere in the world.

The census also lists significant but unofficial home languages in South Africa. These are the Khoi, Nama and San languages (0.1%) of the Northern and Western Cape, and Namibia, as well as the Shona of Zimbabwe (1.2%), Malawi’s Chichewa (0.3%), and Portuguese (1.2%). Portuguese is the official language of both Mozambique and Angola, colonies of Portugal until 1975.

Another 2.1% of people in South Africa speak “other”, unspecified languages.

Maps of first-language speakers in South Africa, based on Census 2011 data.

South Africa’s language origins

English is an urban language of public life, widely used in the media, business and government. It’s estimated that nearly 31 million people – more than half the population – speak and understand the language. Out of the 5.2-million who speak English at home, more a third (34%) are white, a tenth (11%) black, 30% Indian/Asian and 23% coloured. Two-thirds of South Africa’s home-language English speakers are not white.

Afrikaans evolved out of a South Holland Dutch dialect brought to South Africa in the 1600s. Over the centuries it has picked up influences from African languages and from European colonial languages such as English, French and German. More than half (56%) of Afrikaans home-language speakers are coloured, 40% are white, 4% black and just 0.2% Indian/Asian.

Click to enlarge

South Africa’s nine African official languages are almost entirely spoken at home (99% or more) by black people.

The languages all fall into the Southern Bantu-Makua subfamily, part of the broad and branching Niger-Congo language family. They arrived in South Africa during the great expansion of Bantu-speaking people from West Africa eastwards and southwards into the rest of the continent. The expansion began in around 3,000 BCE and was largely complete by 1,000 CE.

Like all Niger-Congo languages they are tonal. Either a high or low tone gives a word a different meaning.

The nine African languages can be divided in two:

• Nguni-Tsonga languages: isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, siSwati, Xitsonga
• Sotho-Makua-Venda languages: Sesotho, Sepedi (Sesotho sa Leboa), Setswana, Tshivenda

In the first group Xitsonga alone falls into the Tswa-Ronga subfamily, while isiZulu, isiXhosa, isNdebele and siSwati are Nguni languages.

Sesotho, Sepedi and Setswana are closely related Sotho languages, and Tshivenda something of a standalone in the Sotho-Makua-Venda subfamily.

Multilingual South Africa

South Africa’s people are more than bilingual. A rough estimate based on Census 2001 first-language data and a 2002 study of second-languages speakers is that the average person – man, woman and child – uses 2.84 languages. Some may speak only one language, but many others may chat freely in three, four or more languages.

Click to enlarge

English- and Afrikaans-speaking people (mostly coloured, Indian/Asian and white people) tend not to have much ability in African languages, but are fairly fluent in each other’s language. Multilingualism is common among black people.

For this reason, South African censuses ask people which two languages they speak. The question in the 2011 census was:

Which two languages does (member of household) speak most often in this household?

Thirteen options were given: South Africa’s official languages,  and “other”. If a person did not speak a second language, that too was recorded.

The contrast between first language and second language is shown in the maps at right. While the geographical pattern of dominant first languages neatly conforms to the facts of history and urbanisation, the picture of second languages is more complicated, more of a mess.

The second map reveals a couple of things. The first is how few people in South Africa speak just one language. The second is that while English is the dominant first language only in the cities – Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban – it is widely used as a second language across the country. English is spread by the media and used as a common language of communication.

But many are compelled to learn English and Afrikaans simply to get a job. These are often poorer people denied an education.

Elsewhere in the world the ability to speak many languages is a sign of sophistication. In South Africa, multilingualism – a complex undertaking, especially in languages from different families – is a common achievement of the poor.

Code-switching South Africa

Language is fluid. In South Africa, languages are and have for centuries been in a constant swirl, mixed by work, migration, education, urbanisation, the places we live, friendship and marriage.

Code-switching is common. This simply means the use of one or more language in a single conversation. Every adult in South Africa does it, even if they aren’t aware of it.

Here’s an example of code-switching overheard at a football match. IsiZulu is in regular type, Afrikaans in bold and English in italics:

“I-Chiefs isidle nge-referee’s ngabe ihambe sleg.
Maar why benga stopi this system ye-injury time?”

A rough translation:

“Chiefs [the football club] won because the referee’s decisions were bad.
Why is this system of injury time not stopped?”

Influenced by other languages around them, South Africa’s languages change.

Who speaks what?

South Africa’s 2011 census recorded language breakdown by population group:

Data source: Statistics South Africa Census 2011

An increasingly intermingled society means it’s less easy to assign a single language to a single population group. But for the population as a whole, here’s a breakdown:

The languages of the provinces

The languages you hear in South Africa depend on where you are in the country.

In the Eastern Cape isiXhosa is spoken by 82% of the population, according to the 2022 census. IsiZulu is the largest language in both KwaZulu-Natal, where 80% speak it, and Gauteng, where it makes up 23% of languages. Sesotho is the language of the Free State, spoken by 72% people there. And so on …

South Africa’s provincial language distribution, from Census 2011 data:

Data source: Statistics South Africa Census 2011

According to the 2022 census, the main languages of each province are:

• Eastern Cape – isiXhosa (81.8%), Afrikaans (9.6%)
• Free State – Sesotho (72.3%), Afrikaans (10.3%)
• Gauteng – isiZulu (23.1%), Sesotho (13.1%), Sepedi (12.6%)
• KwaZulu-Natal – isiZulu (80%), English (14.4%)
• Limpopo – Sepedi/Sesotho sa Leboa (55.5%), Tshivenda (17.4%), Xitsonga (17.3%)
• Mpumalanga – siSwati (30.5%), isiZulu (27.8%)
• Northern Cape – Afrikaans (54.6%), Setswana (35.7%)
• North West – Setswana (72.8%), Sesotho (5.9), Afrikaans (5.2%)
• Western Cape – Afrikaans (41.2%), isiXhosa (31.4%), English (22%)

The languages

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older. South Africa is a multilingual country, so many speak one or more other languages.

Afrikaans

Also known as: isiBhuru (isiNdebele), isiBhulu (isiXhosa), isiBhunu (isiZulu), siBhunu (siSwati), Seburu (Sepedi), Xibunu (Xitsonga)
First-language users: 6,365,488 (10.6% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Western Cape (home to 46.4% of Afrikaans speakers), Gauteng (17.7%) and Northern Cape (10.9%)
Largest language in: Northern Cape (54.6% of provincial population) and Western Cape (41.2%)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

Afrikaans evolved out of a 17th-century Dutch dialect introduced to South Africa in 1652 when the Dutch first colonised the Cape of Good Hope. It became an official language with the Official Languages of the Union Act of 1925. This retroactively dated its official status to 1910, when the Union of South Africa, a British dominion, was formed.

The 6,365,488 people who speak Afrikaans make up 10.6% of the country’s population. More than half (56%) are coloured, 40% white, 4% black, 0.2% Indian/Asian, and 1% “other”.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Afrikaans is spoken by 0.5% of black people, 72.6% of coloured people, 0.7% of Indian/Asian people, 58% of white people and 22.2% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Most Afrikaans speakers (46.4%) live in the Western Cape, and 17.7% in Gauteng. For the rest, 10.9% are in the Northern Cape, 10.6% in the Eastern Cape and 4.6% in the Free State.

Afrikaans is the majority language of the Northern Cape (spoken by 54.6% of the provincial population) and the largest in the Western Cape (41.2%). It’s the second largest language (10.3%) in the Free State after Sesotho (72.3%), and in the Eastern Cape (9.6%) after isiXhosa (81.8%).

It makes up 7.7% of Gauteng’s languages and 5.2% of languages in North West.

English

Also known as: Engels (Afrikaans), isiNgisi (isiNdebele and isiZulu), isiNgesi (isiXhosa), Senyesemane (Sesotho), Seisemane (Sepedi), siNgisi (siSwati), Xinghezi (Xitsonga)
First-language users: 5,228,301 (8.7% of total population)
Most often spoken in: KwaZulu-Natal (home to 33% of English speakers), Western Cape (30.2%) and Gauteng (25.6%)
Minority language in all provinces

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

English is a prominent language in South African public life, widely used in government, business and the media. As a first language it is mainly confined to the cities.

In 1910 English and Dutch were declared the official languages of the new Union of South Africa, a dominion of Britain. English has retained this official status ever since.

The 5,228,301 people who speak English make up 8.7% of the country’s population. About 34% are white, 30% Indian/Asian, 23% coloured, 11% black and 2% “other”.

Among South Africa’s population groups, English is spoken by 1.2% of black people, 25.1% of coloured people, 94.6% of Indian/Asian people, 41.1% of white people and 32.3% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

A third (33%) of English speakers live in KwaZulu-Natal, another 30.2% in the Western Cape and a quarter (25.6%) in Gauteng. A further 6.4% live in the Eastern Cape.

Small minorities of English speakers (1.4% to 0.6%) are scattered across the remaining five provinces.

English is the second-largest language (14.4% of the provincial population) in KwaZulu-Natal after isiZulu (80%). It’s the third-largest in the Eastern Cape (4.8%) after isiXhosa (81.8%) and Afrikaans (9.6%), as well as in the Western Cape (22%) after Afrikaans (41.2%) and isiXhosa (31.4%).

• Read more: The online dictionary of South African English

isiNdebele

Also known as: Ndebele, Southern Ndebele, Ndzundza, isiKhethu
First-language users: 1,044,377 (1.7% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Mpumalanga (home to 47% of isiNdebele speakers), Gauteng (42.5%) and Limpopo (6.9%)
Minority language in all provinces

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

IsiNdebele is the second-smallest official language – after South African Sign Language – confined mainly to Mpumalanga and Gauteng.

It is an Nguni language, like isiZulu, isiXhosa and siSwati. Also called Southern Ndebele, it is not to be confused with Northern Ndebele, more commonly known as Matabele, which is closer to isiZulu and an official language of neighbouring Zimbabwe.

The 1,044,377 people who speak isiNdebele make up just 1.7% of the country’s population. Almost all (99.7%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, IsiNdebele is spoken by 2.1% of black people, 0.1% of Indian/Asian people and 0.6% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Most isiNdebele speakers (47%) live in Mpumalanga, followed by Gauteng (42.5%) and Limpopo (6.9%).

But it’s only the fifth-largest language (9.9% of the provincial population) in Mpumalanga, the 10th-largest (3.1%) in Gauteng and the seventh-largest (1.1%) in Limpopo.

Small minorities of isiNdebele speakers (1.4% to 0.6%) are scattered across the remaining six provinces.

isiXhosa

Also known as: Xhosa
First-language users: 9,786,928 (16.3% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Eastern Cape (home to 58.7% of isiXhosa speakers), Western Cape (23%) and KwaZulu-Natal (3.8%)
Largest language in: Eastern Cape (81.8% of provincial population)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

The dominant language of the Eastern Cape, isiXhosa is also the second-largest language in South Africa after isiZulu. It is an Nguni language, like isiNdebele, isiZulu and siSwati, but also shows some influence from Khoisan languages.

The 9,786,928 people who speak isiXhosa make up 16.3% of the country’s population. Almost all (99.7%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, isiXhosa is spoken by 20% of black people, 0.5% of coloured people, 0.3% of Indian/Asian people, 0.1% of white people and 3.3% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Most (58.7%) isiXhosa speakers live in the Eastern Cape, with nearly a quarter (23%) in the Western Cape. A tenth (9.9%) live in Gauteng and 3.8% in KwaZulu-Natal.

Small minorities of isiXhosa speakers (1.8% to 0.1%) are scattered across the remaining five provinces.

IsiXhosa is the majority language in the Eastern Cape, where it is spoken by 81.8% of the population. It’s the Western Cape’s second-largest language (31.4%) after Afrikaans (41.2%).

IsiXhosa is also the third-largest language in the Free State (5.5%) after Sesotho (72.3%) and Afrikaans (10.3%), in KwaZulu-Natal (3.1%) after isiZulu (80%) and English (14.4%), and in the Northern Cape (4.5%) after Afrikaans (54.6%) and Setswana (35.7%).

isiZulu

Also known as: Zulu; Zoeloe, Zoeloetaal, Zulutaal (Afrikaans)
First-language users: 14,613,202 (24.4% of total population)
Most often spoken in: KwaZulu-Natal (home to 65.7% of isiZulu speakers), Gauteng (23%) and Mpumalanga (9.5%)
Largest language in: KwaZulu-Natal (80% of provincial population) and Gauteng (23.1%)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

IsiZulu is the most widely spoken language in South Africa, the first language of close to a quarter of the population. It is the dominant language of KwaZulu-Natal. Like isiNdebele, isiXhosa and siSwati, isiZulu is an Nguni language.

The 14,613,202 people who speak isiZulu make up 24.4% of the country’s population. Almost all (99.4%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, isiZulu is spoken by 29.9% of black people – more than any other language – as well as by 0.7% of coloured people, 0.6% of Indian/Asian people, 0.1% of white people and 1.6% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Almost two-thirds (68.2%) of isiZulu-speaking people live in KwaZulu-Natal and nearly a quarter (23%) in Gauteng. A tenth (9.5%) live in Mpumalanga, which borders KwaZulu-Natal to the northwest.

Small minorities of isiZulu speakers (0.7% to 0.03%) are scattered across the remaining six provinces.

IsiZulu is the majority language in KwaZulu-Natal, spoken by 80% of the provincial population, and the largest in Gauteng (23.1%).

It’s the second-largest language (27.8%) in Mpumalanga after siSwati (30.5%).

Sepedi (Sesotho sa Leboa)

Also known as: Northern Sotho
First-language users: 5,972,255 (10% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Limpopo (home to 59.1% of Sepedi speakers), Gauteng (30.7%) and Mpumalanga (8.6%)
Largest language in: Limpopo (55.5% of provincial population)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

Sesotho sa Leboa or Sepedi?
The 1993 interim Constitution named the language Sesotho sa Leboa. It was then changed to Sepedi in the final Constitution of 1996. Debate on the name continues.

Sepedi is South Africa’s third-largest African language after isiZulu and isiXhosa, mainly spoken in Limpopo. Like Sesotho and Setswana, it belongs to the Sotho-Tswana subfamily of languages.

The 5,972,255 people who speak Sepedi make up 10% of the total population. Almost all (99.7%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Sepedi is spoken by 12.2% of black people, 0.2% of coloured people, 0.2% of Indian/Asian people, 0.1% of white people and 0.3% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Most (59.1%) Sepedi speakers live in Limpopo, almost a third (30.7%) in Gauteng and 8.6% in Mpumalanga.

Small minorities of Sepedi speakers (1.3% to 0.02%) are scattered across the remaining six provinces.

Sepedi is the majority language in Limpopo, spoken by 55.5% of the provincial population. It’s the third-largest language in Gauteng (12.6%) after isiZulu (23.1%) and Sesotho (13.1%).

Sesotho

Also known as: Southern Sotho, Sesoeto (Afrikaans)
First-language users: 4,678,964 (7.8% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Free State (home to 44.2% of Sesotho speakers) and Gauteng (40.6%)
Largest language in: Free State (72.3% of provincial population)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

Sesotho is the language of the Free State, a bean-shaped province whose inner curve fits around the northwest border of Lesotho, a country where it is the dominant language.

It is one of South Africa’s three Sotho-Tswana languages, with Sepedi and Setswana.

The 4,678,964 people who speak Sesotho make up 7.8% of the total population. Almost all (99.5%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Sesotho is spoken by 9.6% of black people, 0.3% of coloured people, 0.1% of Indian/Asian people and 2.4% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Most of the Sesotho-speaking population is almost equally divided between the Free State (44.2%) and Gauteng (40.6%). Another 4.6% live in North West, 3.5% in the Eastern Cape and 2.4% in Mpumalanga.

Small minorities of Sesotho speakers (1.6% to 0.3%) are scattered across the remaining four provinces.

It is the majority language in the Free State, where 72.3% of the population are Sesotho-speakers. It’s also the second-largest language (13.1%) in Gauteng after isiZulu (23.1%), and in North West (5.9%) after Setswana (72.8%).

Setswana

Also known as: Tswana, Sechuana, Chuana
First-language users: 4,972,787 (8.3% of total population)
Most often spoken in: North West (home to 53.7% of Setswana speakers), Gauteng (30.5%) and Northern Cape (9.2%)
Largest language in: North West (72.8% of provincial population)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

The language of North West and its neighbouring country of Botswana, Setswana is the Tswanaic language in the Sotho-Tswana subfamily, which it shares with Sesotho and Sepedi.

The 4,972,787 people who speak Setswana make up 8.3% of the total population. Almost all (99.6%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Setswana is spoken by 10.2% of black people, 0.4% of coloured people, 0.1% of Indian/Asian people and 0.5% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

More than half (53.7%) of Setswana speakers live in North West, nearly a third (30.5%) in Gauteng, and close on a tenth (9.2%) in the Northern Cape. Both North West and the Northern Cape lie on the border of Botswana, a country where about 77% of the population speak Setswana.

Another 3.1% live in the Free State. Small minorities of Setswana speakers (1.7% to 0.05%) are scattered across the remaining five provinces.

Setswana is the majority language in North West, spoken by 72.8% of the provincial population. It’s the second-largest language in the Northern Cape (35.7%) after Afrikaans (54.6%).

siSwati

Also known as: Swati, Swazi
First-language users: 1,692,719 (2.8% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Mpumalanga (home to 89.7% of siSwati speakers) and Gauteng (30.5%)
Largest language in: Mpumalanga (30.5% of provincial population)

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

SiSwati is mostly spoken in Mpumalanga, whose curved eastern border almost encircles Eswatini, a country where it is the major language. It is an Nguni language, like isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

The 1,692,719 people who speak siSwati make up 2.8% of the total population. Almost all (99.6%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, siSwati is spoken by 3.5% of black people, 0.1% of coloured people, 0.1% of Indian/Asian people and 0.2% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

The vast majority of siSwati speakers (89.7%) live in Mpumalanga, with the remaining third (30.5%) in Gauteng. Small minorities (1.1% to 0.02%) are scattered across the other seven provinces.

It’s also the largest language in Mpumalanga, spoken by 30.5% of the provincial population.

Tshivenda

Also known as: Venda, Chivenda
First-language users: 1,480,565 (2.5% of total population)
Most often spoken in: Limpopo (home to 75.6% of Tshivenda speakers) and Gauteng (23.2%)
Minority language in all provinces

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

Tshivenda is something of a standalone among South Africa’s major African languages, falling into the broader Sotho-Makua-Venda subfamily but not part of the Sotho group. It is mostly spoken in the far northeast of Limpopo.

The 1,480,565 people who speak Tshivenda make up 2.5% of the total population. Almost all (100%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Tshivenda is spoken by 3% of black people and by 0.2% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Close to three quarters (74.6%) of Tshivenda speakers live in Limpopo and almost a quarter (23.2%) in Gauteng. Small minorities (0.95% to 0.04%) are scattered across the other seven provinces.

Tshivenda is the second-largest language in Limpopo, spoken by 17.4% of the provincial population. The largest is Sepedi (55.5%).

Xitsonga

Also known as: Tsonga, Shangaan, Shangana, Vatsonga
Most often spoken in: Limpopo (home to 39.4% of Tshivenda speakers), Gauteng (36.6%) and Mpumalanga (19%)
Minority language in all provinces

All figures are from Census 2022 and refer to first language – the language most often spoken at home by people aged one and older.

Xitsonga is a minority language concentrated along South Africa’s northeast border with the country of Mozambique, where it is also spoken.

It is part of the broader Nguni-Tsonga language subfamily, which it shares with isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu and siSwati. But it alone falls into the Tswa-Ronga group, while the others are Nguni.

The 2,784,279 people who speak Xitsonga make up 4.7% of the country’s population. Almost all (99.7%) are black.

Among South Africa’s population groups, Xitsonga is spoken by 5.7% of black people, 0.1% of coloured people, 0.1% of Indian/Asian people and 1.2% of people who describe themselves as “other”.

Data from Statistics South Africa’s Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (March 2025), based on Census 2022.

Nearly two-fifths (39.4%) of Xitsonga-speaking people live in Limpopo, over a third (36.6%) in Gauteng, 19% in Mpumalanga and 4% in North West. Small minorities (0.44% to 0.03%) are scattered across the other seven provinces.

Xitsonga is the third-largest language in Limpopo (spoken by 17.3% of the provincial population) after Sepedi (55.5%) and Tshivenda (17.4%). It’s also the third-largest in Mpumalanga (10.6%) after siSwati (30.5%) and isiZulu (27.8%).

Sources and notes

• Statistics South Africa: Cultural Dynamics in South Africa (2025)
• Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996
• Statistics South Africa Census 2022
• Statistics South Africa Census 2011
• Adrian Frith: Census 2011
• Glottolog – Comprehensive reference information for the world’s languages, especially the lesser known languages.
• Ethnologue: Languages of South Africa, 20th edition data (2017)
• Pharos South African Multilingual Dictionary (2014) ISBN 9781868901975
• Language in South Africa: The role of language in national transformation, reconstruction and development (2002) by Victor Webb. ISBN 9789027297631
• “The twelve modern Khoisan languages” (2013) by Matthias Bretzinger. In Khoisan languages and linguistics, Proceedings of the 3rd international symposium. ISBN 9783896458735

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander
Updated July 2025
Comments? Email mary1alexander@gmail.com

The graphics on this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

The post The languages of South Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

Images from South Africa’s nine provinces. An Nguni cow on a beach on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. The Brandwag rock in the eastern Free State. Street art in the Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg, Gauteng. The Durban harbour in KwaZulu-Natal. Entabeni game reserve in Limpopo. Traditional Ndebele domestic artwork in Mpumalanga. Quiver trees in the Northern Cape. Mining in North West. A view of Lion’s Head from the suburb of Bo-Kaap in Cape Town, Western Cape.

South Africa’s nine provinces are the Eastern Cape, the Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, North West and the Western Cape.

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History

Before 1996, South Africa had four provinces: the Transvaal and Orange Free State – previously Boer republics – and Natal and the Cape, once British colonies.

In 1910 these four states were united into a single country, the Union of South Africa, under British rule. This became the Republic of South Africa in 1960, under apartheid rule.

In the 1970s and eighties, under the apartheid doctrine of “separate development”, the map of South Africa was gradually spattered with the odd outlines of the “homelands”.

These unsustainable states were set up on disjointed parcels of land with no economic value. Laws were passed to make black South Africans citizens of these barren regions, denying black people’s citizenship of South Africa as a whole.

Click image for more information.

In 1996, under South Africa’s new democratic constitution, the homelands were dismantled, citizenship restored and South Africa consolidated into today’s nine provinces.

Land area of the provinces

There are vast differences in the size of the provinces, from the small and crowded city region of Gauteng to the vast and empty Northern Cape.

Data source: Statistics South Africa Census 2022

The land area of South Africa’s nine provinces, from smallest to largest:

• Gauteng: 18,178 square kilometres (1.5% of total)
• Mpumalanga: 76,495 square kilometres (6.3%)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 94,361 square kilometres (7.7%)
• North West: 104,882 square kilometres (8.6%)
• Limpopo: 125,755 square kilometres (10.3%)
• Western Cape: 129,462 square kilometres (10.6%)
• Free State: 129,825 square kilometres (10.6%)
• Eastern Cape: 168,966 square kilometres (13.8%)
• Northern Cape: 372,889 square kilometres (30.5%)
• South Africa: 1,220,813 square kilometres (100%)

READ MORE: How big is South Africa?

Population of the provinces

The population of the provinces also varies considerably. Gauteng, the smallest province, has the largest number of people living there – over a quarter of South Africa’s population. The Northern Cape, which takes up nearly a third of the country’s land area, has the smallest population: just over 2.2% of the national total.

In 2024 South Africa’s provincial populations, and their share of the total, were:

• Eastern Cape: 7,176,230 (11.4%)
• Free State: 3,044,050 (4.8%)
• Gauteng: 15,931,824 (25.3%)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 12,312,712 (19.5%)
• Limpopo: 6,402,594 (10.2%)
• Mpumalanga: 5,057,662 (8.%)
• Northern Cape: 1,372,943 (2.2%)
• North West: 4,155,303 (6.6%)
• Western Cape: 7,562,588 (12.%)

READ MORE: South Africa’s population

CENSUS COUNTS OF PROVINCIAL POPULATIONS

South Africa has held three censuses in its recent democratic history: in 1996, 2001 and 2011. Over those 15 years, the population of the provinces shifted.

Data: Statistics South Africa

Gauteng’s population grew dramatically, overtaking that of KwaZulu-Natal – which saw significant growth of its own. Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and the Western Cape also had notable increases in population. By contrast, the populations of the Eastern Cape, Free State and Northern Cape remained fairly static, as people migrated to other provinces.

READ MORE: Infographic: Census counts of South Africa’s population

Population density in the provinces

The variation in land area and population among South Africa’s population translates into huge differences in population density, according to 2017 data. Gauteng has an average of 785 people per square kilometre, while the Northern Cape has only three people for each square kilometre.

Click image to learn more.

Population density in South Africa’s nine provinces in 2017, from smallest to largest:

• Northern Cape: 3 people per square kilometre
• Free State: 22 people per square kilometre
• North West: 37 people per square kilometre
• Eastern Cape: 38 people per square kilometre
• Limpopo: 46 people per square kilometre
• Western Cape: 50 people per square kilometre
• Mpumalanga: 58 people per square kilometre
• KwaZulu-Natal: 117 people per square kilometre
• Gauteng: 785 people per square kilometre

Map of population density in South Africa’s nine provinces.

READ MORE: South Africa’s population

Provincial migration

South Africans migrate away from poverty to where the jobs are, moving from poorer provinces to the richer ones.

Gauteng is South Africa’s wealthiest province, mostly a city region and the centre of the country’s economy. It has the largest population, constantly swelled by migration. The province’s net migration rate (the number of people moving in minus people moving out) was nearly a million between 2011 and 2016.

Click animation to view from the start. Data: Statistics South Africa mid-year population estimates 2017

The Eastern Cape is the poorest province. Between 2011 and 2016 nearly half a million of its people migrated to other provinces, while only 170 000 or so moved into the province.

READ MORE: South Africa’s population

Province and population group

There is also a wide variation in the racial composition of the different provinces’ populations.

Census 2011 figures reveal that black people were the majority population group in seven of the nine provinces, comprising from 75% to 97% of the provincial total. Yet they made up less than a third of the population in the Western Cape (26.7%) and under a half in the Northern Cape (46.5%).

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The distribution of a population group can reflect that people’s history in the country.

In 2011, coloured people were found mainly in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape (respectively 61.1%, 12% and 10.7% of South Africa’s total coloured population). People of this group are largely descended from a mixture of slaves brought to what was then the Cape Colony, white immigrants to the colony, and indigenous Africans, particularly the Khoisan.

The majority (71.6%) of Indian/Asian people lived in KwaZulu-Natal in 2011. Many members of this group descend from indentured labourers brought to colonial Natal in the early 20th century to work on sugarcane plantations. Only 0.3% of Indians lived in the Free State (0.1% of the total Free State population), as they were forbidden by law to enter what was then the Orange Free State during the apartheid era.

Provincial distribution also reflects a group’s socioeconomic position. White people, the beneficiaries of the apartheid system, were largely found in the more developed and urbanised provinces of Gauteng (in 2011, 40.4% of the total white population, and 18.9% of the total Gauteng population) and the Western Cape (19.4% of the total white population, and 18.4% of the Western Cape population).

READ MORE: South Africa’s population

Languages of the provinces

There’s considerable variation in home languages between the provinces, according to Census 2011.

Click image to find out more.

IsiXhosa, for instance, is spoken by almost 80% of people in the Eastern Cape, while around 78% of those in KwaZulu-Natal speak isiZulu. IsiZulu is also the most common home language in Gauteng, but at a much smaller percentage. In the Western Cape and Northern Cape, Afrikaans comes into its own.

READ MORE: The languages of South Africa

The main languages in each province, according to Census 2011:

• Eastern Cape: isiXhosa 78.8%, Afrikaans 10.6%
• Free State: Sesotho 64.2%, Afrikaans 12.7%
• Gauteng: isiZulu 19.8%, English 13.3%, Afrikaans 12.4%, Sesotho 11.6%
• KwaZulu-Natal: isiZulu 77.8%, English 13.2%
• Limpopo: Sesotho 52.9%, Xitsonga 17%, Tshivenda 16.7%
• Mpumalanga: siSwati 27.7%, isiZulu 24.1%, Xitsonga 10.4%, isiNdebele 10.1%
• Northern Cape: Afrikaans 53.8%, Setswana 33.1%
• North West: Setswana 63.4%, Afrikaans 9%
• Western Cape: Afrikaans 49.7%, isiXhosa 24.7%, English 20.3%

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Economy of the provinces

Gauteng dominates almost all industries in South Africa, except agriculture and mining.

Click animation to see a static version, and to learn more.

In 2016 the main industries in each province were:

• Eastern Cape: government services 21%, trade, catering and accommodation 18%, finance 16%
• Free State: government services 15%, finance 14%, trade, catering and accommodation 13%
• Gauteng: finance 23%, government services 19%, manufacturing 14%
• KwaZulu-Natal: manufacturing 16%, finance 15%, government services 15%
• Limpopo: mining 25%, government services 18%, trade, catering and accommodation 13%
• Mpumalanga: mining 20%, trade, catering and accommodation 13%, manufacturing 13%
• Northern Cape: mining 19%, government services 15%, finance 12%
• North West: mining 30%, government services 12%, finance 12%
• Western Cape: finance 23%, trade, catering and accommodation 15%, manufacturing 14%

THE PROVINCE’S SHARE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S ECONOMY

Population size correlates with each province’s contribution to the national economy, with Gauteng having the biggest.

The tiny province punches way above its weight, making up 33.8% of South Africa’s gross domestic product in 2016 and around 5% of the GDP of Africa as a whole. Next is KwaZulu-Natal with 16%, followed by the Western Cape with 13.7%. These three provinces together contribute nearly two-thirds to total economy of South Africa.

In 2016 the value of each province’s economy, and its share of the total GDP of South Africa, was:

• Northern Cape: R91 billion (2.1% of South Africa’s GDP)
• Free State: R218 billion (5%)
• North West: R280 billion (6.4%)
• Limpopo: R312 billion (7.2%)
• Mpumalanga: R324 billion (7.4%)
• Eastern Cape: R331 billion (7.6%)
• Western Cape: R596 billion (13.7%)
• KwaZulu-Natal: R692 billion (15.9%)
• Gauteng: R1.5 trillion (34.6%)

Government of the provinces

The eye-catching architecture of the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature in Galeshewe, Kimberley. Click image for a larger view. (Graeme Williams, MediaClub)

South Africa’s provinces are governed, in different ways, on a national, provincial and local level.

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

On the national level, South Africa has two houses of parliament: the National Assembly, and the National Council of Provinces. The second exists to ensure that the interests of each province are protected in the laws passed by the National Assembly.

Each one of South Africa’s nine provinces sends 10 representatives to the National Council of Provinces. Six of these are permanent members of the council, and four are special delegates.

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

Each province has its own provincial government.

The provincial legislature has the power to pass laws in certain limited areas. The legislature has between 30 and 80 members depending on the province’s portion of the national voters’ roll.

The premier – the head of government in the province – governs the province together with other “members of the executive council”, known as MECs. Each MEC has a specific responsibility, such as health, education, tourism and transport.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The nine provinces are each further divided into municipalities. Metropolitan municipalities are densely populated urban areas with major cities – such as Johannesburg or Durban – at their core. District municipalities are larger, less urban regions centred on one or more town or small city. District municipalities are further divided into local municipalities.

The cities of the provinces

Pietermaritzburg, the capital of KwaZulu-Natal. A contemporary statue of Mahatma Ghandi, an icon of resistance to colonial rule, stands against the heavily ornate facade of the Pietermaritzburg city hall, a building constructed during the era of the British Natal Colony. (E, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Each of the nine provinces has a provincial capital, the seat of provincial government. These are usually the largest city in the province – Johannesburg in Gauteng, for example, or Mahikeng in North West.

The exceptions are the Eastern Cape (Bhisho) and KwaZulu-Natal (Pietermaritzburg), which have smaller cities as their capitals for reasons of history. Cape Town in the Western Cape and Bloemfontein in the Free State also stand out for being both provincial capitals and two of the three capital cities of South Africa.

The provincial capitals and major cities of South Africa’s nine provinces are:

• Eastern Cape: Bhisho (capital) and Port Elizabeth (major city)
• Free State: Bloemfontein (capital and major city)
• Gauteng: Johannesburg (capital and major city)
• KwaZulu-Natal: Pietermaritzburg (capital) and Durban (major city)
• Limpopo: Polokwane (capital and major city)
• Mpumalanga: Mbombela (capital and major city) – also known as Nelspruit
• North West: Mahikeng (capital and major city) – formerly known as Mafeking, then as Mafikeng
• Northern Cape: Kimberley (capital and major city)
• Western Cape: Cape Town (capital and major city)

Data: Statistics South Africa Census 2011

Sources

• Census South Africa public database
• Statistics South Africa Census 2022
• Statistics South Africa Census 2011
• Statistics South Africa Community Survey 2016
• Statistics South Africa mid-year population estimates 2017
• Statistics South Africa gross domestic product, fourth quarter 2017
• United Nations Statistics Division World Statistics Pocketbook 2017
• World Bank Open Data
• MediaClub

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander.
Updated July 2025.
Comments? Email mary1alexander@gmail.com

The post The nine provinces of South Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

A child plays in a restaurant in Vosloorus, a large township in Gauteng province. (Media Club)

The country has the sixth largest population in Africa – after Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tanzania – and the 24th largest in the world.

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South Africa’s population: overview

According to Statistics South Africa’s 2024 mid-year population estimates, South Africa is home to 63,015,904 people.

Black people are in the majority, with a population of 51.5 million – 81.7% of the total. The remaining 18.3% is made up of 5.3 million coloured people (8.5%), 1.6 million Indian/Asian people (2.6%) and 4.5 million white people (7.2%).

Data source: Statistics South Africa mid-year population estimates 2024

These ratios have changed since the country became a democracy in 1994. The percentage of black people has increased, that of coloured and Indian/Asian people has stayed roughly the same, while the share of white people has shrunk.

The 1996 census, the first of the democratic era, recorded a population of 40.6 million. Black people made up 76.7% of the total, coloured people 8.9%, Indian/Asian people 2.6%, white people 10.9% and an uncategorised group 0.9%.

In about 2013 the coloured population overtook the white population as South Africa’s second-largest group.

READ MORE: Geographic distribution of South Africa’s races

Population of the provinces

The population of South Africa’s nine provinces varies enormously.

Data source: Statistics South Africa mid-year population estimates 2024

The most striking difference is between Gauteng and the Northern Cape. Gauteng is a city region of just 18,178 square kilometres – 1.4% of South Africa’s land area – yet it’s home to over a quarter of the country’s people. The arid and rural Northern Cape takes up almost a third of South Africa, but only 2.2% of the population live there.

Then there’s KwaZulu-Natal, home to almost a fifth of the population, and the larger Free State, home to only 4.8%.

Data source: Statistics South Africa Census 2022

In 2024 South Africa’s provincial populations, and their share of the total, were:

• Eastern Cape: 7,176,230 (11.4%)
• Free State: 3,044,050 (4.8%)
• Gauteng: 15,931,824 (25.3%)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 12,312,712 (19.5%)
• Limpopo: 6,402,594 (10.2%)
• Mpumalanga: 5,057,662 (8.%)
• Northern Cape: 1,372,943 (2.2%)
• North West: 4,155,303 (6.6%)
• Western Cape: 7,562,588 (12.%)

READ MORE: The nine provinces of South Africa

Population density

South Africa’s population density is about 46 people per square kilometre, according to 2017 data.

In the provinces, differences in size and population mean different population densities. Gauteng, small but populous, has an average of 785 people for every square kilometre. KwaZulu-Natal has 117 people per square kilometre. The empty Northern Cape has just three people for each square kilometre.

READ MORE: The nine provinces of South Africa

Life, death and HIV

The 2024 estimate of average life expectancy at birth in South Africa is 66.5 years – 69.2 years for females and 63.6 years for males. This is up from a predicted life expectancy of 54.7 years in 2002, before any serious effort to tackle the HIV and Aids epidemic began.

The crude birth rate is 19.6 babies born for every 1,000 people. The total fertility rate is an average of 2.4 babies born to a woman over her lifetime. The crude death rate is 8.7 per 1,000.

Infant mortality (babies who die in their first year of birth) is 22.9 deaths for every 1,000 live births. The under-five mortality rate is 28.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

These rates show an improvement on child survival since 2002, when infant mortality was 57 deaths and under-five mortality 79.7 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Some 8 million people are HIV positive, making up 12.7% of South Africa’s total population of 63 million. Women are hardest hit by the disease: over a fifth (20.5%) of all women aged 15 to 49 are HIV positive.

The total HIV prevalence rate was lower in 2002, at 8.9% of the population. The higher rate in 2024 reflects progress in the rollout of antiretroviral therapy, as more people live with HIV instead of dying of Aids.

READ MORE: HIV and Aids in South Africa

Age structure

South Africa has 17.3 million children aged 14 or younger, making kids the largest age group in the country and nearly a third (27.5%) of the population.

Poorer provinces tend to have a larger share of children and wealthier provinces a smaller share. In the Limpopo 33.1% of the population is aged 0 to 14 and in the Eastern Cape it’s 31.7%. By contrast, children make up 23% of Gauteng’s population and 22.9% of the Western Cape’s.

For the country as a whole, the second largest age group is from 30 to 44 (24.8%), closely followed by 15 to 29 (24.2%). Older groups are smaller: 13.8% are 45 to 59, 7.5% aged 60 to 74, and 2.2% 75 or older.

Age and race

Click image to find out more.

Data from 2017 reveals that when it comes to age structure and race, South Africa’s population reflects the facts of history and continued inequality.

While black South Africans are in the majority in every age group, this majority decreases as the age of the population rises. Coloured, Indian and especially white South Africans tend to live longer.

Click to view from the start.

Migration

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South Africans migrate away from poverty to where the jobs are. They move from poorer provinces to the richer ones, and from rural areas to the cities.

Gauteng is South Africa’s wealthiest province, mostly a city region and the centre of the country’s economy. It has the largest population, constantly swelled by migration.

In the 10 years from mid-2011 to mid-2021, net migration (number of people moving in minus people moving out) into Gauteng increased the province’s population by almost 1.9 million people.

The Western Cape, the third-largest provincial economy with the lowest poverty level, had net migration of 646,529 over the same 10 years. Conversely, KwaZulu-Natal – the second-largest – lost 18,333 of its people to migration from 2011 to 2021. While the province has a large economy, it also has relatively high levels of poverty.

The Eastern Cape has, by far, the highest level of poverty of all the provinces – and the highest number of people moving elsewhere. Its net migration for 2011 to 2021 was a negative 603,044. Limpopo had the second-highest rate of outward migration, at -300,527.

Net migration (people moving in minus people moving out) for South Africa’s provinces, 2011 to 2021:

• Eastern Cape: -603,044
• Free State: -23,128
• Gauteng: 1,856,006
• KwaZulu-Natal: -18,333
• Limpopo: -300,527
• Mpumalanga: 178,386
• Northern Cape: 17,063
• North West: 228,675
• Western Cape: 646,529

Click animation to view from the start.

READ MORE: The nine provinces of South Africa

International migration

South Africa’s international migration rates tend to be positive – more people move here, particularly from the rest of Africa, than leave.

From mid-2011 to mid-2021 net international migration into the country was 2.7 million. Most of the migrants (2.8 million) were from elsewhere in Africa, with a further net migration of 176,120 Indian/Asian people.

The total was offset by the net loss of 286,611 white people to other countries.

Net international migration for South Africa, 2011 to 2021:

• African: 2,850,656
• Indian/Asian: 176,120
• White: -286,611
• Total: 2,740,165

Trends in South Africa’s population from 1960

Age structure

There’s a lot of talk of South Africa’s population being dominated by the youth. But as the graphic below shows, we’re less youthful than we have been for decades.

The end of apartheid, better healthcare, widespread social welfare and greater economic opportunities all mean South Africans are now able to live longer lives – reducing the proportion of children and youth in our total population. See the actual figures for selected years.

READ MORE: Infographic: South Africa’s population and age structure from 1960 to 2015

Urbanisation

From 1960 to the late 1980s, apartheid laws kept families and communities in poor rural areas. Young men alone were allowed to move to the cities, where their labour was valuable.

After the end of apartheid, from the mid-1990s, urbanisation increased rapidly. In the last 20 years, much of the migration from rural areas has been to Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city since 1950.

READ MORE: Infographic: South Africa’s urban and rural population from 1960 to 2015

Life expectancy

Charting South Africans’ life expectancy is to track the country’s modern history. In 1960, a time of terrible apartheid abuse, an average newborn child was expected to have a lifespan of only 52 years – 50 years for boys. In 2015, life expectancy was 62 years.

In between, life expectancy has risen and fallen. The most severe drop was during the crisis of the HIV and Aids epidemic from 1995 to 2005. In 2005, life expectancy was the same as it had been in 1960.

READ MORE: Infographic: Life expectancy in South Africa from 1960 to 2015

Child mortality

The death rate of children is the starkest indicator of the health of a country’s society and economy. In 1974 South Africa’s mortality rate – deaths per 1,000 live births – was 88.1 for infants under a year and 125.5 for under-fives. By 2016 it had dropped to 34.2 for infants and 43.3 for under-fives – the lowest rate yet recorded.

READ MORE: Infographic: Child mortality in South Africa from 1974 to 2016

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander. Updated August 2025.
Comments? Email mary1alexander@gmail.com

The post South Africa’s population appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

Map of South Africa showing the percentage of households living in poverty in each municipality, according to data from the Statistics South Africa Community Survey 2016.

South Africa’s poorest province is the Eastern Cape. The wealthiest province is Gauteng. Around 880,000 of the mostly rural Eastern Cape’s people live in poverty. In Gauteng, a city region with the best opportunities for jobs, some 610,000 people live in poverty.

These numbers are calculated from Statistics South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey.

Poverty in South Africa has deep historical roots that show up in more recent movements of people.

Map of South Africa showing estimated numbers of people living in poverty. The numbers are calculated from the population, poverty headcount and average household size of each municipality.

The reason so many South Africans live in poverty, in a middle-income country, is apartheid and colonialism. Apartheid was a crude attempt at social engineering designed to make black South Africans a cheap and plentiful source of labour. It was preceded by centuries of Dutch and then British colonialism that had the same goal, but with cruder mechanisms.

Colonialism and apartheid excluded the majority of people from meaningful participation in the economy. It made South Africa poorer than it should have been.

South Africa has a wealth of resources. But for centuries, this potential was squandered.

A government policy designed to keep most of its people poor seems absurd. But until 1994 South Africa was not a democracy. The only electorate the government had to please was white people.

Colonial and apartheid planners purposefully built a system that prevented black South Africans from earning, prospering and contributing to the wealth of the country. That sucked the potential for growth out of the economy.

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Today, geographical patterns of poverty on the map of South Africa still correspond to the apartheid “homelands”, barren rural regions far from cities, packed with people but with little infrastructure, no development and few jobs. Municipalities with high percentages of people living in poverty are today often found in regions that were once homelands.

But when we look at total numbers of people living in poverty, the cities stand out. Cities have larger numbers of people, so more people living in poverty are likely to be found there.

Migration from the rural areas to the cities is an important feature of recent South African history. Apartheid laws confined the poor to the rural areas. Once those laws were lifted in the late 1980s, poor people began to move to the cities – where they often stayed poor. And they keep moving.

How is poverty measured?

People are living there. Children play and adults work in Alexandra township, one of the poorest areas in Gauteng. Alex lies on the border of the wealthy suburb of Sandton, said to be the richest square mile in Africa. (CA Bloem)

Poverty is easy to see, but less easy to define – or to measure across a city, a province or a country. Many measures of poverty use money. If a person lives on less than a certain threshold income they are considered to be living in poverty.

Income is used for the three national poverty lines developed in South Africa. These are the food poverty line (set at R531 per person per month in April 2017), the lower-bound poverty line (R758) and the upper-bound poverty line (R1,138).

Another picture can be painted when we look beyond income to the other ways people experience poverty. How does poverty reveal itself in people’s health, their level of education, the dwelling they live in, how they cook their food, the water they drink? Poverty examined according to different types of deprivation is known as multidimensional poverty.

For its 2016 Community Survey, on which the maps on this page were based, Statistics South Africa used the South African Multidimensional Poverty Index.

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The index calculates the poverty of households according to four aspects of life: health, education, living standards and economic activity.

These four are known as the dimensions of poverty. Each dimension is assessed according to different indicators.

The poverty indicators

The health dimension has only one indicator: child mortality, or whether a child under the age of five living in the household has died in the past year.

Education has two indicators. One is years of schooling, or whether no person in the household aged 15 or older has completed five years of schooling. The other, school attendance, looks at whether any school-age child seven to 15 years old does not attend school.

Living standards has seven indicators, to do with fuel, water, sanitation, type of dwelling and ownership of assets. What fuel does the household use for lighting, heating and cooking? Is there piped water in the dwelling? Does the household have a flushing toilet? What kind of dwelling does the household live in? What does the household own?

Economic activity is measured by joblessness: whether all the adults, people aged 15 to 64, are out of work.

Each household is scored according to these indicators. If the score is 33.3% or more, the household is living in poverty – they are “multidimensionally poor”.

Intensity of poverty

The score also measures the intensity of poverty.

In the 2016 Community Survey, the average intensity of the poverty experienced by multidimensionally poor people in the nine provinces ranged from 40.1% in the Western Cape to 44.1% in Gauteng.

* Estimate

In Gauteng, only 4.6% of the population live in poverty. But the poverty experienced in Gauteng, the wealthiest province, is the most intense.

The multidimensional poverty index is not intended to replace the other important measures of poverty.

The food poverty line, for example, is the rand value below which people are unable to buy enough food to give them the minimum daily energy requirement for adequate health.

The multidimensional index, Statistics South Africa says, should rather be seen as “a complementary measure to these money-metric measures”.

How do we fight poverty?

According to the World Bank, South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. This is not only inequality of income. As the bank said in a report: “Inequality of opportunity, measured by the influence of race, parents’ education, parents’ occupation, place of birth, and gender influence opportunities, is high.”

South Africa’s social welfare system attempts to reduce the worst deprivations of poverty. This “social wage” is paid to the poor in a number of ways.

It includes free primary healthcare, no-fee schools, RDP housing and housing subsidies, free basic water, electricity and sanitation for the poorest households, and social grants.

When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, social protection was introduced as a short-term measure to ease the dire poverty created by apartheid. But social grants are now the only livelihood of many South Africans, and remain essential to reducing poverty.

Sources

• Statistics South Africa Community Survey 2016
• Community Survey 2016: Provinces at a Glance
• The South African Multidimensional Poverty Index
• Statistics South Africa: Poverty Trends in South Africa
• World Bank and Statistics South Africa: Overcoming Poverty and Inequality in South Africa
• South African Social Security Agency: New social grant amounts
• South African Social Security Agency: Statistical reports

Read more

• Animation: Measuring the dimensions of poverty in South Africa
• Infographic: Exploring poverty in South Africa’s provinces
• The provinces and ‘homelands’ of South Africa before 1996
• Map: Distribution of South Africa’s races
• The nine provinces of South Africa
• Infographic: Population density in South Africa’s provinces
• The economies of South Africa’s provinces
• South Africa’s population

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander.
Updated 8 July 2025.
Comments? Email mary1alexander@gmail.com

The post Mapping poverty in South Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

The borders of the province, a bean shape curved around the Kingdom of Lesotho, were first established in 1848, when the British made the Orange Free State their colony. It is one of only two South African provinces – the other is KwaZulu-Natal – to have kept its pre-apartheid boundaries.

READ MORE: The nine provinces of South Africa

Bloemfontein’s Mystic Boer

Lining the walls of Die Mystic Boer bar and nightclub in Bloemfontein are colourised original portraits of Boer guerrillas, some of them children, who fought in the South African (Anglo-Boer) War of 1899 to 1902. (South African Tourism, CC BY 2.0)

Chemicals factory in Sasolburg

The Sasol Infrachem chemicals processing plant in Sasolburg, an industrial town in the far north of the Free State near the Gauteng border. The town was founded in 1954 to support Sasol, a state-owned company created to manufacture oil from coal. South Africa has plenty of coal reserves, but no oil. Today Sasol is a giant multinational petrochemicals corporation. (Media Club South Africa)

Cosmos flowers on a country road

Cosmos flowers in bloom are a common sight along Free State roadsides in spring and autumn. Cosmos are native to Mexico and found across South America. The plants are now widespread in South Africa, brought here in contaminated horse feed imported from Argentina during the South African (Anglo-Boer) War of 1899 to 1902. (Graeme Williams, Media Club South Africa)

Crop circles near Jacobsdal

An aerial view of circular crop fields watered by centre-pivot irrigation systems near the small farming town of Jacobsdal in the western Free State, near the Northern Cape border. (Jean Boris Hamon, CC BY-NC-ND)

Eastern Free State farm road in winter

Winter colours on farmland and snow on mountains near the town of Harrismith in the eastern Free State. (Steve Slater, CC BY 2.0)

Farmland near Fouriesberg

A tree-lined stream runs through fields bordered by sandstone outcrops near the Free State town of Fouriesburg. (Jonathan Gill, CC BY-NC 2.0)

The golden sandstone of the eastern Free State

Late afternoon sun shines off sandstone cliffs in the Golden Gate National Park. In the 19th and early 20th centuries blocks of eastern Free State sandstone, prized for their softness and lovely colour, were used to build churches, public buildings and grand homes across the province. (Pieter Edelman, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Nelson Mandela on Naval Hill

On Naval Hill a statue of Nelson Mandela, his fist raised in the amandla salute, overlooks the city of Bloemfontein. Naval Hill rises in the centre of the city and includes museums and a nature reserve. (South African Tourism, CC BY 2.0)

Presidency of the Boer republic

The Old Presidency building in Bloemfontein was the residence of presidents of the Orange Free State Boer republic from 1886 to 1900, the year the British captured the city during the South African (Anglo-Boer) War. It was designed by English architects Lennox Canning and F Goad, with later additions by Sir Herbert Baker. Today it is a museum focused on the lives and times of the Boer presidents. (Media Club South Africa)

Supreme Court of Appeal

The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The court is the second-highest court in South Africa – after the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg – with the power to judge appeals against decisions made in the High Court. Bloemfontein is both South Africa’s judicial capital and the capital of the Free State. (Media Club South Africa)

Thunder clouds over the Maloti Mountains

A late summer thunderstorm brews over the Maloti Mountains in the eastern Free State. The Maloti lie on the Kingdom of Lesotho’s northern boundary with the province. They are part of the Drakensberg system of mountains. The Maloti Drakensberg has been named a Unesco World Heritage Site for its outstanding natural beauty and the wealth of San Bushman rock art found in its caves and rock shelters. (Graeme Williams, Media Club South Africa)

READ MORE: Gallery: Eastern Cape province, South Africa

Researched and written by Mary Alexander.

The post Gallery: Free State province, South Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

Discover the history, people and geography of the Eastern Cape, South Africa’s second-largest province, with a selection of Creative Commons images of the region.

Graaff-Reinet in the Valley of Desolation

The town of Graaff-Reinet lies in the Valley of Desolation in the northeast Karoo region of the Eastern Cape. Founded in 1786, exactly a century before Johannesburg, Graaff-Reinet is the fourth-oldest colonially established settlement in South Africa after Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Swellendam. Notable South Africans born here include anti-apartheid activists Robert Sobukwe, Matthew Goniwe and Beyers Naude, artist Helen Martins, 19th-century road builders Andrew Geddes Bain and Thomas Charles John Bain, palaeontologist James Kitching, and business mogul Anton Rupert. (South African Tourism, CC BY-2.0)

Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) harbour from the air

A plane passenger’s view of Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) harbour on the western curve of Algoa Bay. The port was established in 1825, five years after the first wave of British settlers into the Eastern Cape region in 1820. Today South African exports from the port include farming produce, manganese ore mined in the Northern Cape, and vehicles produced by the Eastern Cape’s large automotive manufacturing industry. Gqeberha also handles overflow sea traffic from the larger ports at Durban and Cape Town. (I Went Left, CC BY-NC 2.0)

New cars line up outside East London factory

Cars ready for export on the loading dock below the Mercedes-Benz factory in East London. Although it’s the second-largest city in the Eastern Cape, East London – founded by 1820 settlers from Britain in 1836 – is a small city with an economy largely sustained by the factory. (Rodger Bosch, Media Club South Africa)

Homesteads and cattle on the Qolora Mouth road

With the Indian Ocean just over the next hill, the road into the coastal village of Qolora Mouth curves past homesteads and grazing cattle in the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape. (Rodger Bosch, Media Club South Africa)

Golfing on the Wild Coast

Avid golfers Welcome Tolbadi (18 handicap) and Dickson Mboyi (10 handicap) head off for a round at the nine-hole golf course in the Wild Coast village of Qolora Mouth in the Eastern Cape. (Rodger Bosch, Media Club South Africa)

The Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda

Fantastical concrete sculptures in the Camel Yard of the Owl House in Nieu-Bethesda, a small farming town in the northwest of the Eastern Cape. Created by artist Helen Martins from 1945 to 1976, in collaboration with Koos Malgas from 1964 onwards, the Owl House is a masterwork of visionary outsider art. The life of Helen Martins inspired “The Road to Mecca” by South African playwright Athol Fugard, which was later made as a film. Tourists drawn to Nieu-Bethesda to see the Owl House have revived the fortunes of the town. (South African Tourism, CC BY 2.0)

Hole in the Wall

Hole in the Wall, a rock formation in the shallow waters of Coffee Bay beach on the Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape. The hole in this intertidal island, made of layers of sandstone and shale, was broken through by the force of waves over millennia. In isiXhosa, Hole in the Wall is called esiKhaleni, “place of noise”, from the reverberating of waves crashing between its rock walls. (Pieter Edelman, CC BY NC-ND)

Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) Public Library

The Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) Public Library was opened in 1902. The building is a lovely example of Victorian Gothic architecture, with its terracotta facade manufactured in England. The statue of Britain’s Queen Victoria out front was made from Sicilian marble. (South African Tourism, CC BY 2.0)

Qunu, birthplace of Nelson Mandela

Rolling grasslands in the central Transkei, near the village of Qunu in the eastern region of the Eastern Cape. Qunu is the birthplace of South African statesman Nelson Mandela. (Rodger Bosch, Media Club South Africa)

Sir Rufane Donkin’s reserve in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)

The lighthouse, pyramid and mosaic in the Donkin Reserve in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth). The reserve is four hectares of green space off Belmont Terrace overlooking the city. It was set aside for the people of Gqeberha in perpetuity by Sir Rufane Donkin, acting governor of the Cape Colony from 1820 to 1821.
Donkin named the city after his wife Elizabeth, who had died in Meerut, India in 1818. The stone pyramid bears an inscription to her: “In memory of one of the most perfect of human beings, who has given her name to the Town below.”
While the pyramid and lighthouse were built in the 1800s, the mosaic was created in the 1990s. It visually tells the history of the people of Gqeberha and the Eastern Cape. (6000.co.za, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Bridge over the Storms River

The Storms River Bridge in the Tsitsikamma region of the Eastern Cape, with the Baviaanskloof Mountains in the distance. (Graeme Williams, Media Club South Africa)

Read more: Gallery: Free State province

Researched and written by Mary Alexander.

The post Gallery: Eastern Cape province, South Africa appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

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The land area of South Africa’s nine provinces, in order of size:

• Gauteng: 18,178 square kilometres (1.5% of total)
• Mpumalanga: 76,495 square kilometres (6.3%)
• KwaZulu-Natal: 94,361 square kilometres (7.7%)
• North West: 104,882 square kilometres (8.6%)
• Limpopo: 125,755 square kilometres (10.3%)
• Western Cape: 129,462 square kilometres (10.6%)
• Free State: 129,825 square kilometres (10.6%)
• Eastern Cape: 168,966 square kilometres (13.8%)
• Northern Cape: 372,889 square kilometres (30.5%)
• South Africa: 1,220,813 square kilometres (100%)

(Source: Statistics South Africa Community Survey 2016)

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Find out more about South Africa’s provinces

• The nine provinces of South Africa
• Infographic: The population of South Africa’s provinces
• Infographic: Population density in South Africa’s provinces
• Animation: The economies of South Africa’s provinces
• Moving to the city: Provincial migration
• Animation: What languages are spoken in South Africa’s provinces?
• South Africa’s provinces and ‘homelands’ before 1996

Written and designed by Mary Alexander.
Updated 7 April 2018.
Comments? Email southafrica.gateway@gmail.com

More infographics

The graphics on this page are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.

The post Infographic: The land area of South Africa’s nine provinces appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

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The Eastern Cape is divided into eight major municipalities.

Two are metropolitan municipalities: Nelson Mandela Bay (the city region of Gqeberha) and Buffalo City (East London and surrounds).

The other six are district municipalities – larger, more rural regions.

The district municipalities are further divided into 31 local municipalities.

Eastern Cape: Metropolitan and district municipalities

READ MORE ABOUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

• Local government in the Eastern Cape
• Local government in the Free State
• Local government in Gauteng
• Local government in KwaZulu-Natal
• Local government in Limpopo
• Local government in Mpumalanga
• Local government in the Northern Cape
• Local government in North West
• Local government in the Western Cape

READ MORE ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA’S PROVINCES:

• The nine provinces of South Africa
• The population of South Africa’s provinces
• The land area of South Africa’s provinces
• Gallery: The Eastern Cape
• Gallery: The Free State
• Infographic: The economies of South Africa’s nine provinces
• Infographic: Population density in South Africa’s provinces
• Infographic: What languages are spoken in South Africa’s provinces?
• The provinces and ‘homelands’ of South Africa before 1996

Data source: Statistics South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey
Thanks and credit to Htonl, who makes public-funded data available to the public and creates maps of South Africa you can’t find anywhere else.

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander.
Updated 10 March 2024.

The post Infographic: Local government in the Eastern Cape appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

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The Free State is divided into five major municipalities.

One is the metropolitan municipality of Mangaung, which has the city of Bloemfontein as its seat.

The other four – larger, more rural regions – are district municipalities.

The province also has 19 smaller local municipalities, each falling under one of the four district municipalities.

Free State: Metropolitan and district municipalities

READ MORE ABOUT LOCAL GOVERNMENT:

• Local government in the Eastern Cape
• Local government in the Free State
• Local government in Gauteng
• Local government in KwaZulu-Natal
• Local government in Limpopo
• Local government in Mpumalanga
• Local government in the Northern Cape
• Local government in North West
• Local government in the Western Cape

READ MORE ABOUT SOUTH AFRICA’S PROVINCES:

• The nine provinces of South Africa
• The population of South Africa’s provinces
• The land area of South Africa’s provinces
• Gallery: The Eastern Cape
• Gallery: The Free State
• Infographic: The economies of South Africa’s nine provinces
• Infographic: Population density in South Africa’s provinces
• Infographic: What languages are spoken in South Africa’s provinces?
• The provinces and ‘homelands’ of South Africa before 1996

Data source: Statistics South Africa’s 2016 Community Survey
Thanks and credit to Htonl, who makes public-funded data available to the public and creates maps of South Africa you can’t find anywhere else.

Researched, written and designed by Mary Alexander.
Updated 10 March 2025.

The post Infographic: Local government in the Free State appeared first on South Africa Gateway.