South Africa is the sixth African country with the largest population, counting approximately 60.5 million individuals as of 2021. In 2023, the largest city in South Africa was Cape Town. The capital of Western Cape counted 3.4 million inhabitants, whereas South Africa's second largest city was Durban (eThekwini Municipality), with 3.1 million inhabitants. Note that when observing the number of inhabitants by municipality, Johannesburg is counted as largest city/municipality of South Africa.

From four provinces to nine provinces

Before Nelson Mandela became president in 1994, the country had four provinces, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal and 10 “homelands” (also called Bantustans). The four larger regions were for the white population while the homelands for its black population. This system was dismantled following the new constitution of South Africa in 1996 and reorganized into nine provinces. Currently, Gauteng is the most populated province with around 15.9 million people residing there, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 11.68 million inhabiting the province. As of 2022, Black African individuals were almost 81 percent of the total population in the country, while colored citizens followed amounting to around 5.34 million.

A diverse population

Although the majority of South Africans are identified as Black, the country’s population is far from homogenous, with different ethnic groups usually residing in the different “homelands”. This can be recognizable through the various languages used to communicate between the household members and externally. IsiZulu was the most common language of the nation with around a quarter of the population using it in- and outside of households. IsiXhosa and Afrikaans ranked second and third with roughly 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

This dataset is about cities in South Africa. It has 198 rows. It features 3 columns: country, and population.

Cairo, in Egypt, ranked as the most populated city in Africa as of 2025, with an estimated population of over 23 million inhabitants living in Greater Cairo. Kinshasa, in Congo, and Lagos, in Nigeria, followed with some 17.8 million and 17.2 million, respectively. Among the 15 largest cities in the continent, another one, Kano, was located in Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa. Population density trends in Africa As of 2023, Africa exhibited a population density of 50.1 individuals per square kilometer. Since 2000, the population density across the continent has been experiencing a consistent annual increment. Projections indicated that the average population residing within each square kilometer would rise to approximately 58.5 by the year 2030. Moreover, Mauritius stood out as the African nation with the most elevated population density, exceeding 627 individuals per square kilometre. Mauritius possesses one of the most compact territories on the continent, a factor that significantly influences its high population density. Urbanization dynamics in Africa The urbanization rate in Africa was anticipated to reach close to 45.5 percent in 2024. Urbanization across the continent has consistently risen since 2000, with urban areas accommodating only around a third of the total population then. This trajectory is projected to continue its rise in the years ahead. Nevertheless, the distribution between rural and urban populations shows remarkable diversity throughout the continent. In 2024, Gabon and Libya stood out as Africa’s most urbanized nations, each surpassing 80 percent urbanization. As of the same year, Africa's population was estimated to expand by 2.27 percent compared to the preceding year. Since 2000, the population growth rate across the continent has consistently exceeded 2.3 percent, reaching its pinnacle at 2.63 percent in 2013. Although the growth rate has experienced a deceleration, Africa's population will persistently grow significantly in the forthcoming years.

Population in largest city in South Africa was reported at 6324351 in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Population in largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

As of 2023, South Africa's population increased and counted approximately 62.3 million inhabitants in total, of which the majority inhabited Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western-Eastern Cape. Gauteng (includes Johannesburg) is the smallest province in South Africa, though highly urbanized with a population of over 16 million people according to the estimates. Cape Town, on the other hand, is the largest city in South Africa with nearly 3.43 million inhabitants in the same year, whereas Durban counted 3.12 million citizens. However, looking at cities including municipalities, Johannesburg ranks first. High rate of young population South Africa has a substantial population of young people. In 2024, approximately 34.3 percent of the people were aged 19 years or younger. Those aged 60 or older, on the other hand, made-up over 10 percent of the total population. Distributing South African citizens by marital status, approximately half of the males and females were classified as single in 2021. Furthermore, 29.1 percent of the men were registered as married, whereas nearly 27 percent of the women walked down the aisle. Youth unemployment Youth unemployment fluctuated heavily between 2003 and 2022. In 2003, the unemployment rate stood at 36 percent, followed by a significant increase to 45.5 percent in 2010. However, it fluctuated again and as of 2022, over 51 percent of the youth were registered as unemployed. Furthermore, based on a survey conducted on the worries of South Africans, some 64 percent reported being worried about employment and the job market situation.

South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data was reported at 9,822,625.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 9,615,976.000 Person for 2016. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 3,628,124.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 9,822,625.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 2,136,849.000 Person in 1960. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

Population in the largest city (% of urban population) in South Africa was reported at 14.26 % in 2024, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. South Africa - Population in the largest city - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on September of 2025.

South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 26.327 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 26.291 % for 2016. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 23.218 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 26.327 % in 2017 and a record low of 18.806 % in 1991. South Africa ZA: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s South Africa – Table ZA.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted Average;

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2025, the country counted over 237.5 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 135.5 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 118.4 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranked seventh, while Mauritius had the highest population density on the whole African continent in 2023. The fastest-growing world region Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, and the Central African Republic, the population increase peaks at over 3.4 percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. African cities on the rise The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. African cities are also growing at large rates. Indeed, the continent has three megacities and is expected to add four more by 2050. Furthermore, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria, by 2035.

Historical dataset of population level and growth rate for the Buffalo City, South Africa metro area from 1950 to 2025.

This dataset is about cities in Southern Africa. It has 334 rows. It features 2 columns including population.

As of 2024, South Africa's population increased, counting approximately 63 million inhabitants. Of these, roughly 27.5 million were aged 0-24, while 654,000 people were 80 years or older. Gauteng and Cape Town are the most populated South Africa’s yearly population growth has been fluctuating since 2013, with the growth rate dropping below the world average in 2024. The majority of people lived in the borders of Gauteng, the smallest of the nine provinces in terms of land area. The number of people residing there amounted to 16.6 million in 2023. Although the Western Cape was the third-largest province, the city of Cape Town had the highest number of inhabitants in the country, at 3.4 million. An underemployed younger population South Africa has a large population under 14, who will be looking for job opportunities in the future. However, the country's labor market has had difficulty integrating these youngsters. Specifically, as of the fourth quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate reached close to 60 percent and 384 percent among people aged 15-24 and 25–34 years, respectively. In the same period, some 27 percent of the individuals between 15 and 24 years were economically active, while the labor force participation rate was higher among people aged 25 to 34, at 74.3 percent.

In 2024, Gabon had the highest urbanization rate in Africa, with over 90 percent of the population living in urban areas. Libya and Djibouti followed at around 82 percent and 79 percent, respectively. On the other hand, many countries on the continent had the majority of the population residing in rural areas. As of 2023, urbanization in Malawi, Rwanda, Niger, and Burundi was below 20 percent. A growing urban population On average, the African urbanization rate stood at approximately 45 percent in 2023. The number of people living in urban areas has been growing steadily since 2000 and is forecast to increase further in the coming years. The urbanization process is particularly rapid in Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania. In these countries, the urban population grew by over five percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. However, in 39 countries on the continent, the urban population growth was over three percent. The most populous cities in Africa Africa’s largest city is Lagos in Nigeria, counting around nine million people. It is followed by Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cairo in Egypt, each with over seven million inhabitants. Moreover, other cities on the continent are growing rapidly. The population of Bujumbura in Burundi will increase by 123 percent between 2020 and 2035, registering the highest growth rate on the continent. Other fast-growing cities are Zinder in Niger, Kampala in Uganda, and Kabinda in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In 2023, over 68.82 percent of South Africa's total population lived in urban areas and cities. Urbanization defines the share of urban population from the total population of a country. Just like urbanization, the population density within the nation has risen, reaching 46 inhabitants per square kilometer, meaning more people are sharing less space. Many opportunities for work and leisure can be found in the urban locations of South Africa, and as such the five largest municipalities each now have over three million residents. Facing its economic strengths and drawbacks South Africa is a leading services destination, as it is one of the most industrialized countries in the continent of Africa. The majority of the country’s gross domestic product comes from the services sector, where more than 70 percent of the employed population works. Unemployment is seen as a critical indicator of the state of an economy, and for South Africa, a high rate of over 25 percent could indicate a need for a shift in economic policy. As of 2017, South Africa was one of the twenty countries with the highest rate of unemployment in the world.

The African Cities Population Database (ACPD) has been produced by the Birkbeck College of the University of London in 1990 at the request of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The database contains head counts for 479 cities in Africa which either have a population of over 20,000 or are capitals of their nation state. Listed are the geographical location of the cities and their population sizes. The material is primarily derived from a 1988 report of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and several issues of the United Nations Demographic Yearbook (1973-81). Severe problems were found with several countries such as Togo, Ghana and South Africa. For South Africa, the data were derived from the United Nations Demographic Yearbook 1987.

WCPD is an Arc/Info point coverage. It has no projection, as the cities are located on the basis of their latitude and longitude. Coordinates were assigned on the basis of gazetteers or African maps. Each record in the data base contains details of the city name, country name, latitude and longitude of the city, and its population at a defined time. The Arc/Info attribute table contains the following fields:

AREA Arc/Info item PERIMETER Arc/Info item ACPD# Arc/Info item ACPD-ID Arc/Info item ID-NUM Unique number for each city CITY City name COUNTRY Country name CITY-POP Population of city proper YEAR Latest available year of collection

ACPD comes as an Arc/Info EXPORT file originally called "ACPD.E00" and contains 67 Kb of data. The file has a record length of 80 and a block size of 8000 (blocking factor = 100). The file can be read from tape using Arc/Info's TAPEREAD command or any other generic copy utility. If distributed on a diskette it can be read using the ordinary DOS 'COPY' command. The file has to be converted to Arc/Info internal format using its IMPORT command.

References to the WCPD data set can be found in:

• SERLL News, Issue No. 1, January 1991, Birkbeck College, London, UK.
• D. Rhind. "Cartographically-related research at Birkbeck College 1987-91" in: The Cartographic Journal, Vol. 28, June 1991, pp. 63-66.

The source of the WCPD data set as held by GRID is Birkbeck College, University of London, Department of Geography, London, UK.

About this dataset

Context

This list ranks the 269 cities in the South Carolina by Non-Hispanic Black or African American population, as estimated by the United States Census Bureau. It also highlights population changes in each cities over the past five years.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates, including:

• 2019-2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2018-2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2016-2020 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
• 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Variables / Data Columns

• Rank by Non-Hispanic Black Population: This column displays the rank of cities in the South Carolina by their Non-Hispanic Black or African American population, using the most recent ACS data available.
• cities: The cities for which the rank is shown in the previous column.
• Non-Hispanic Black Population: The Non-Hispanic Black population of the cities is shown in this column.
• % of Total cities Population: This shows what percentage of the total cities population identifies as Non-Hispanic Black. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• % of Total South Carolina Non-Hispanic Black Population: This tells us how much of the entire South Carolina Non-Hispanic Black population lives in that cities. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.
• 5 Year Rank Trend: TThis column displays the rank trend across the last 5 years.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Historical dataset of population level and growth rate for the Johannesburg, South Africa metro area from 1950 to 2025.

Abstract

The World Values Survey aims to attain a broad understanding of socio-political trends (i.e. perceptions, behaviour and expectations) among adults across the world.

Geographic coverage

National The sample was distributed as follows: 60% metropolitan (large cities with populations of 250 000+); 40% non-metropolitan (including cities, large towns, small towns, villages and rural areas)

Analysis unit

Individual

Universe

The sample included adults 16 years+ in South Africa

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample had to be representative of urban as well as rural populations. Roughly the distribution was as follows: - South Africa: 60% metropolitan (large cities with populations of 250 000+); 40% non-metropolitan (including cities, large towns, small towns, villages and rural areas).

A standard form of sampling instructions was sent to each agency to ensure uniformity in the sampling procedure. Markinor stratified the samples for each country by region, sex and community size. To this end, statistics and figures that were supplied to us by the agencies were used. However, we requested the agencies to revise these where necessary or where alternatives would be more effective. The agencies then supplied the street names for the urban starting points, and made suggestions for sampling procedures in rural areas where neither maps nor street names were available. From sample-point level, the respondent selection was done randomly according to a selection grid used by Markinor (the first two pages of the master questionnaire).

Substitution was permitted after three unsuccessful calls. Six interviews were conducted at each sample point. The male/female split was 50/50. The urban sample included all community sizes greater than 500 and the rural sample all community sizes less than 500. This is the definition of urban and rural used in South Africa.

Remarks about sampling: -Final numbers of clusters or sampling points: 500 -Sample unit from office sampling: Street Names

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The WVS questionnaire was translated from the English questionnaire by a specialist translator The translated questionnaire was pre-tested. The pre-tests were part of the general pilots. In total 20 pilots were conducted. The English questionnaire from the University of Michigan was used to make the WVS. Extra questions were added at the end of the questionnaire. Also, country specific questions were included at the end of the questionnaire, just before the demographics.The sample was designed to be representative of the entire adult population, i.e. 18 years and older, of your country. The lower age cut-off for the sample was 16 and there was not any upper age cut-off for the sample.

Cleaning operations

Some measures of coding reliability were employed. Each questionnaire is coded against the coding frame. A minimum of 10% of each coders work is checked to ensure consistency in interpretation. If any discrepancies in interpretation are World Values Survey (1999-2004) - South Africa 2001 v.2015.04.18 discovered, a 100% check is carried out on that particular coders work. Errors were corrected individually and automatically.

Sampling error estimates

The error margins for this survey can be calculated by taking the following factors into account: - all samples were random (as opposed to quota-controlled) - the sample size per country (or segment being analysed) - the substitution rate per country (or segment being analysed) - the rates were recorded on CARD 1; col. 805 of the questionnaire. From the substitution rate, the response rate can be calculated.

This horizontal bar chart displays population (people) by city using the aggregation sum in Southern Africa. The data is about cities.

Historical dataset of population level and growth rate for the Pretoria, South Africa metro area from 1950 to 2025.