MzansiMirror.com provides online access to a selection of results from South Africa’s Census 2011 down to the “small area” layer of detail, as released in the Community Profile Database DVD set. Please note the disclaimer at the foot of this page.
Census 2011 results for South Africa
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- Area
- 1,220,813 km²
- South Africa’s Population
- 51,770,560 (42.41 per km²)
- Number of Households
- 14,450,161 (11.84 per km²)
Gender
| Gender | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Female | 26,581,769 | 51.3% |
| Male | 25,188,791 | 48.7% |
Age
| Age | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 0–4 | 5,685,452 | |
| 5–9 | 4,819,751 | |
| 10–14 | 4,594,886 | |
| 15–19 | 5,003,477 | |
| 20–24 | 5 374,542 | |
| 25–29 | 5,059,317 | |
| 30–34 | 4,029,010 | |
| 35–39 | 3,467,767 | |
| 40–44 | 2,948,618 | |
| 45–49 | 2,620,283 | |
| 50–54 | 2,218,289 | |
| 55–59 | 1,797,408 | |
| 60–64 | 1,385,768 | |
| 65–69 | 957,805 | |
| 70–74 | 748,331 | |
| 75–79 | 481,267 | |
| 80–84 | 322,916 | |
| 85+ | 255,673 |
Population group
| Race | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Black African | 41,000,938 | 79.20% |
| Coloured | 4,615,401 | 8.92% |
| White | 4,586,838 | 8.86% |
| Indian or Asian | 1,286,930 | 2.49% |
| Other | 280,453 | 0.54% |
First language
| Language | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| isiZulu | 11,587,374 | 22.7% |
| isiXhosa | 8,154,258 | 16.0% |
| Afrikaans | 6,855,082 | 13.5% |
| English | 4,892,623 | 9.6% |
| Sepedi | 4,618,576 | 9.1% |
| Setswana | 4,067,248 | 8.0% |
| Sesotho | 3,849,563 | 7.6% |
| Xitsonga | 2,277,148 | 4.5% |
| SiSwati | 1,297,046 | 2.6% |
| Tshivenda | 1,209,388 | 2.4% |
| isiNdebele | 1,090,223 | 2.1% |
| Other | 828,258 | 1.6% |
| Sign language | 234,655 | 0.5% |
Place types
The census results are available for six area types listed here, from largest to smallest.
- Provinces
- The nine provinces of South Africa.
- Metropolitan and District Municipalities
- Administrative divisions of the provinces; there are 8 metropolitan and 44 district municipalities.
- Local Municipalities
- Administrative divisions of the district municipalities; there are 226 local municipalities.
- Main Places
- Stats SA-defined locations that generally correspond to towns, small cities, regions of large cities, or traditional council areas. Areas that do not fall within any named settlement are incorporated in a main place named for the municipality.
- Sub Places
- Stats SA-named locations which generally correspond to suburbs, villages, or localities. When a main place contains only one sub place, that sub place is named for the main place with a suffix of “SP”.
- Small Areas
- The smallest output unit for census data; on average, each small area contains approximately 600 people.
Provinces
Provincial population
The table shows South Africa’s population by province in 2011.
Select a province below, then navigate down the hierarchy of places.
| Province | Population | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | 6,562,053 | 12.7% |
| Free State | 2,745,590 | 5.3% |
| Gauteng | 12,272,263 | 23.7% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 10,267,300 | 19.8% |
| Limpopo | 5,404,868 | 10.4% |
| Mpumalanga | 4,039,939 | 7.8% |
| North West | 3,509,953 | 6.8% |
| Northern Cape | 1,145,861 | 2.2% |
| Western Cape | 5,822,734 | 11.2% |
Provincial land area
The table shows the distribution of land area by province in 2011.
| Province | Area (km²) | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | 168,966 | 13.8% |
| Free State | 129,825 | 10.6% |
| Gauteng | 18,178 | 1.5% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 94,361 | 7.7% |
| Limpopo | 125,755 | 10.3% |
| Mpumalanga | 76,495 | 6.3% |
| North West | 104,882 | 8.6% |
| Northern Cape | 372,889 | 30.5% |
| Western Cape | 129,462 | 10.6% |
MzansiMirror.com is not affiliated with Statistics South Africa, nor is it affiliated with the South African Government. Stats SA provides the basic data, while Mzansi Mirror processes the census data to produce the information displayed. We obtained population statistics from the Census 2011 Community Profile Databases, and we calculated geographical areas from the Census 2011 GIS DVD.
Also check out
➜ South African National Census of 1991
➜ South African National Census of 1996