Demographics & population — South Africa
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators.
Profile updated 2026-06-02
⚡ Demographics & population at a glance
Population size, age structure, migration, ethnicity, language, education, and health indicators. Key figure for South Africa: 60,442,647
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Population overview
- Population
60,442,647
- Population Growth Rate
1.07%
- Population Distribution
the population concentrated along the southern and southeastern coast, and inland around Pretoria; the eastern half of the country is more densely populated than the west
- Urban Population
- urban population: 68.8%
- of total population rate of urbanization: 1.72% annual rate of change
- Population in Major Urban Areas
10.316 million Johannesburg (includes Ekurhuleni), 4.890 million Cape Town (legislative capital), 3.228 million Durban, 2.818 million PRETORIA (administrative capital), 1.296 million Port Elizabeth, 934,000 West Rand
- Population: Male/Female
- male: 29,664,388
- female: 30,778,259
Age & family
- Age Structure
- years: 27.2% (male 8,227,690/female 8,194,392) 15-64
- years: 65.3% (male 19,524,873/female 19,947,839) 65
- years and over: 7.5% (male 1,911,825/female 2,636,028)
- Median Age
- total: 30.4
- years male: 30.1
- years female: 30.6 years
- Birth Rate - births/1,000 population
18
- Death Rate - deaths/1,000 population
6.9
- Total Fertility Rate - children born/woman
2.27
- Gross reproduction rate
1
- Child Marriage
- women married by age 15: 0.9%
- women married by age 18: 3.6%
- men married by age 18: 0.6%
- Contraceptive Prevalance Rate - female 12-49
54.6%
- Contraceptive Prevalence Rate - female 12-49
54.6%
- Currently married women (ages 15-49)
36.9%
- Sex Ratio at Birth - male/female
- at birth: 1.02
- male(s)/female 0-14 years: 1
- male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.98
- male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.73
- male(s)/female total population: 0.96 male(s)/female
Migration
- Net Migration Rate - migrant(s)/1,000 population
-0.2
- Demographic profile
- South Africa’s youthful population is gradually aging, as the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has declined dramatically from about 6 children per woman in the 1960s to roughly 2.2 in 2014, and has remained at this level as of 2022. This pattern is similar to fertility trends in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, and sets South Africa apart from the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average TFR remains higher than other regions of the world. Today, South Africa’s decreasing number of reproductive age women is having fewer children, as women increase their educational attainment, workforce participation, and use of family planning methods
- delay marriage
- and opt for smaller families. As the proportion of working-age South Africans has grown relative to children and the elderly, South Africa has been unable to achieve a demographic dividend because persistent high unemployment and the prevalence of HIV/AIDs have created a larger-than-normal dependent population. HIV/AIDS was also responsible for South Africa’s average life expectancy plunging to less than 43 years in 2008
- it has rebounded to 65 years as of 2022. HIV/AIDS continues to be a serious public health threat, although awareness-raising campaigns and the wider availability of anti-retroviral drugs is stabilizing the number of new cases, enabling infected individuals to live longer, healthier lives, and reducing mother-child transmissions. Migration to South Africa began in the second half of the 17th century when traders from the Dutch East India Company settled in the Cape and started using slaves from South and southeast Asia (mainly from India but also from present-day Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia) and southeast Africa (Madagascar and Mozambique) as farm laborers and, to a lesser extent, as domestic servants. The Indian subcontinent remained the Cape Colony’s main source of slaves in the early 18th century, while slaves were increasingly obtained from southeast Africa in the latter part of the 18th century and into the 19th century under British rule. After slavery was completely abolished in the British Empire in 1838, South Africa’s colonists turned to temporary African migrants and indentured labor through agreements with India and later China, countries that were anxious to export workers to alleviate domestic poverty and overpopulation. Of the more than 150,000 indentured Indian laborers hired to work in Natal’s sugar plantations between 1860 and 1911, most exercised the right as British subjects to remain permanently (a small number of Indian immigrants came freely as merchants). Because of growing resentment toward Indian workers, the 63,000 indentured Chinese workers who mined gold in Transvaal between 1904 and 1911 were under more restrictive contracts and generally were forced to return to their homeland. In the late 19th century and nearly the entire 20th century, South Africa’s then British colonies’ and Dutch states’ enforced selective immigration policies that welcomed "assimilable" white Europeans as permanent residents but excluded or restricted other immigrants. Following the Union of South Africa’s passage of a law in 1913 prohibiting Asian and other non-white immigrants and its elimination of the indenture system in 1917, temporary African contract laborers from neighboring countries became the dominant source of labor in the burgeoning mining industries. Others worked in agriculture and smaller numbers in manufacturing, domestic service, transportation, and construction. Throughout the 20th century, at least 40% of South Africa’s miners were foreigners
- the numbers peaked at over 80% in the late 1960s. Mozambique, Lesotho, Botswana, and Eswatini were the primary sources of miners, and Malawi and Zimbabwe were periodic suppliers. Under apartheid, a "two gates" migration policy focused on policing and deporting illegal migrants rather than on managing migration to meet South Africa’s development needs. The exclusionary 1991 Aliens Control Act limited labor recruitment to the highly skilled as defined by the ruling white minority, while bilateral labor agreements provided exemptions that enabled the influential mining industry and, to a lesser extent, commercial farms, to hire temporary, low-paid workers from neighboring states. Illegal African migrants were often tacitly allowed to work for low pay in other sectors but were always under threat of deportation. The abolishment of apartheid in 1994 led to the development of a new inclusive national identity and the strengthening of the country’s restrictive immigration policy. Despite South Africa’s protectionist approach to immigration, the downsizing and closing of mines, and rising unemployment, migrants from across the continent believed that the country held work opportunities. Fewer African labor migrants were issued temporary work permits and, instead, increasingly entered South Africa with visitors’ permits or came illegally, which drov
Ethnicity & language
- Ethnic Groups
Black African 81.4%, Coloured 8.2%, White 7.3%, Indian/Asian 2.7%, other 0.4%
- Language Note
isiZulu or Zulu (official) 25.3%, isiXhosa or Xhosa (official) 14.8%, Afrikaans (official) 12.2%, Sepedi or Pedi (official) 10.1%, Setswana or Tswana (official) 9.1%, English (official) 8.1%, Sesotho or Sotho (official) 7.9%, Xitsonga or Tsonga (official) 3.6%, siSwati or Swati (official) 2.8%, Tshivenda or Venda (official) 2.5%, isiNdebele or Ndebele (official) 1.6%, other (includes South African sign language (official) and Khoi or Khoisan or Khoe languages) 2%; note - data represent language spoken most often at home
- Nationality Noun
- South African(s) adjective: South African
Education
- Literacy - total population
95%
- Literacy - male
95.5%
- Literacy - female
94.5%
- Literacy Definition
age 15 and over can read and write
- Education Expenditures - percent of GDP
6.6%
- Total School Life Expectancy - (primary to tertiary)
- total: 13
- years male: 13
- years female: 14 years
Health & living conditions
- Life Expectancy at Birth
- total population: 71.9
- years male: 70.3
- years female: 73.5 years
- Infant Mortality Rate
- total: 21.9 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 23.9 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 20 deaths/1,000 live births
- Infant Mortality Rate - total deaths/1,000 live births
- total: 21.9 deaths/1,000
- live births male: 23.9 deaths/1,000
- live births female: 20 deaths/1,000 live births
- Maternal Mortality Rate - deaths/100,000 live births
127
- Physicians Density - physicians/1,000 population
.79
- Hospital Bed Density - beds/1,000 population
2.8
- Health Expenditures - percent of GDP
8.6%
- Major Infectious Diseases - degree of risk
- intermediate food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A,
- sexually transmitted diseases: HIV/AIDS,
- hepatitis B (2024) water contact diseases: schistosomiasis
- Obesity - adult prevalence rate
28.3%
- Tobacco Use
- total: 20.3%
- male: 34%
- female: 6.5%
- Alcohol consumption per capita
- total: 7.21
- liters of pure alcohol beer: 3.99
- liters of pure alcohol wine: 1.21
- liters of pure alcohol spirits: 1.31
- liters of pure alcohol other alcohols: 0.7 liters of pure alcohol
- Drinking Water Source - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 99.7%
- of population rural: 90.3%
- of population total: 96.7%
- urban: 0.3%
- of population rural: 9.7%
- of population total: 3.3% of population
- Sanitation Facility Access - percent of urban population improved
- urban: 96.6%
- of population rural: 86.4%
- of population total: 93.2%
- urban: 3.4%
- of population rural: 13.6%
- of population total: 6.8% of population
- Underweight - percent of children under five years
5.5%