APA-Pretoria (South Africa) South Africa’s population has increased by 20 percent from 51.7 million in 2011 to 62 million in the latest Census 2022 figures, a senior official at Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has announced.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke announced this on Tuesday when he officially handed over the census report to President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
According to the census conducted in February 2022, Africans remained the dominant population group at 81.4 percent, followed by mixed-race people (coloureds) at 8.2 percent, whites at 7.3 percent and Indians/Asians at 2.7 percent.
This exercise was the fourth population and housing count in post-apartheid South Africa, with the first conducted in 1996 and subsequent censuses conducted in 2001 and 2011.
The statistician-general said there has been a steady decline in the proportion of the white population – from 11 percent in 1996 to 7.3 percent in 2022.
He gave no reason for this development.
Five of South Africa’s nine provinces – Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga – experienced positive net migration, Maluleke said.
The census population count provided data on the demographic, economic and social makeup of the country, he said, adding that the findings from censuses were key in tracking service delivery programmes over time.
NM/jn/APA