The South African Population Census of 1991 was an enumeration of the population and housing conducted from 7 to 8 March 1991 by the Central Statistical Service (now Statistics South Africa). It was a pivotal enumeration carried out during the final years of apartheid, shortly before the repeal of the Population Registration Act.
Conducted amid widespread political violence, the 1991 Census covered the entire Republic of South Africa, collecting data on dwellings and individuals’ demographic, family, and employment details. For the first time, the government used aerial photography taken in February 1991 and sample surveys to estimate populations in 88 “unrest” areas or inaccessible residential and informal settlement/shack areas, which were otherwise inaccessible to government officials.
The census was enumerated on a de facto basis, that is, according to the place where people were located during the census. All people who were present on Republic of South Africa territory during census night (i.e. at midnight between 7 and 8 March 1991) were therefore enumerated and included in the data. Visitors from abroad who were present in the country on holiday or business on the night of the census, as well as foreigners (and their families) who were studying or economically active, were enumerated and included in the figures. The Diplomatic and Consular Corps of foreign countries were not included. Crews and passengers of ships were also not enumerated, except those who were present at the harbours of the Republic on census night. Similarly, residents of South Africa who were absent from the night were not enumerated. Personnel of the South African Government stationed abroad and their families were, however, enumerated. Such persons were included in the Transvaal (Pretoria).
After being adjusted for underenumeration, the South African Census of 1991 yielded a count of 30,986,920 citizens, excluding the four “independent” homelands (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei) which were enumerated separately. The six “self-governing” (non-independent) homelands (Gazankulu, Kangwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and QwaQwa) added 10,746,504 people to the nationwide count.
Census 1991 results for South Africa
- Total Land Area
- 1,221,040 km²
- South Africa’s Population
- 30,987,000 (25.38 per km²)
Major Population Centres
According to the 1991 census, there were 4,865,827 people living in the Johannesburg/Randburg/East Rand/West Rand (Witwatersrand) urban area. The Pretoria/Witwatersrand/Vereeniging (PWV) area was home to 6,719,578 people on census day, or over 21% of the population outside the TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei). One of every three people lived in Transvaal and one in four in Natal/KwaZulu (TBVC excluded).
| Johannesburg/Randburg | 1,916,063 |
| East Rand | 1,378,792 |
| Far East Rand | 700,906 |
| West Rand | 870,066 |
| Pretoria/Wonderboom/Soshanguve | 1,080,187 |
| Vereeniging/Vanderbijlpark/Sasolburg | 773,594 |
| Klerksdorp | 321,478 |
| Durban/Pinetown/Inanda | 1,137,378 |
| Pietermaritzburg | 228,549 |
| Cape Peninsula | 2,350,157 |
| Port Elizabeth/Uitenhage | 853,204 |
| King William’s Town/East London | 270,127 |
| Kimberley | 167,060 |
| Bloemfontein | 300,150 |
| OFS Goldfields | 427,569 |
All of the above were urban areas in the “white” part of South Africa under the jurisdiction of a formal local authority.
Provinces
| Province | Conv | Population | Area(km.²) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cape of Good Hope | C.P. | 5,514,413 | 721,001 |
| Natal | Natal | 2,074,513 | 86,967 |
| Orange Free State | O.F.S. | 1,929,369 | 129,152 |
| Transvaal | Tvl. | 8,630,016 | 283,917 |
| Total | 18,148,311 | 1,221,037 |
Conv: Conventional abbreviation in use among English speakers in South Africa
Homelands
Below are the populations of the 10 Black homelands, including the four “independent” homelands of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei, and the six “self-governing” (non-independent) homelands (Gazankulu, Kangwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and QwaQwa).
| Homeland | Area (km²) | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Transkei | 43,654 | 4,553,994 |
| Bophuthatswana | 40,011 | 2,419,515 |
| Venda | 5,807 | 691,273 |
| Ciskei | 9,100 | 1,056,552 |
| Gazankulu | 7,484 | 772,532 |
| KaNgwane | 3,917 | 576,573 |
| Kwa-Ndebele | 2,208 | 360,582 |
| KwaZulu | 36,074 | 5,546,082 |
| Lebowa | 22,137 | 2,812,630 |
| QwaQwa | 1,040 | 277,957 |
Gender
| Gender | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Female | 15,507,000 | 50.04% |
| Male | 15,480,000 | 49.96% |
Population group
| Race | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Black African | 21,646,000 | 69.85% |
| White | 5,068,000 | 16.36% |
| Coloured | 3,286,000 | 10.60% |
| Indian or Asian | 987,000 | 3.19% |
Home language
The most widely spoken home language in South Africa outside the TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei) was isiZulu, which had over 8.35 million speakers. Afrikaans came next with 5.75 million, and English came fourth as the home language of 3.4 million people.
| Language | People | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| isiZulu | 8,354,470 | 26.96% |
| Afrikaans | 5,750,814 | 18.56% |
| North Sotho | 3,458,638 | 11.16% |
| English | 3,436,717 | 11.09% |
| isiXhosa | 2,513,411 | 8.11% |
| South Sotho | 2,240,430 | 7.23% |
| Setswana | 1,443,478 | 4.66% |
| Shangaan/Xitsonga | 1,440,932 | 4.65% |
| SiSwati | 953,918 | 3.08% |
| Other | 1,394,112 | 4.50% |
Because the above statistics excluded the ethnically based TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei) territories, they were misleading. Xhosa was spoken and had official status in Transkei and Ciskei, and the same applied to Setswana in Bophuthatswana and to Venda in Venda. The combined population of Transkei and Ciskei was 5.6 million (Table 1), which, if added to 2.5 million isiXhosa speakers in the rest of the country (Table 5), totals 8.1 million. This suggests isiXhosa should have ranked as the second most widely spoken language after isiZulu. Similarly, the number of Setswana mother-tongue speakers should have ranked third, with 2.4 million people living in Bophuthatswana and 1.4 million speakers living in the rest of the country.
The small numbers of blacks speaking English and Afrikaans as home languages appeared to support this hypothesis:
| Whites | Coloureds | Asians | Blacks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrikaans | 57.5% | 83.2% | 1.3% | 0.4% |
| English | 38.7% | 15.0% | 94.9% | 0.2% |
Age
Over 10 million of the almost 31 million people who lived in South Africa outside the TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei) fell in the age group 5-19 years, and over 8 million fell in the 20- 34-year-old group.
Also, 46.9% of the population outside the TBVC (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei) was under the age of 21. A more detailed age breakdown is as follows:
| Total | Whites | Coloureds | Asians | Blacks | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65 years + | 4.3% | 9.4% | 3.4% | 3.4% | 3.3% |
| < 3 years | 7.1% | 4.0% | 6.6% | 5.7% | 8.0% |
| < 6 years | 14.6% | 8.4% | 13.6% | 12.0% | 16.3% |
| < 18 years | 40.8% | 27.3% | 40.1% | 36.9% | 44.2% |
| < 21 years | 46.9% | 32.6% | 47.1% | 43.1% | 50.4% |
| Average | 25.7 years | 33.2 years | 25 years | 26.9 years | 23.9 years |
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.
Also check out
➜ South African National Census of 1996
➜ South African National Census of 2001