|
Related Topics |
|
In this article we take a look at the community profile for Gauteng, published by Statistics South Africa based on the Community Survey they conducted during 2016.
This article will take a look at the Gauteng population and a few other interesting facts and figures about the province readers might not know about. |
Sandton Central. Picture taken by Oliver Karstel
|
|
So Gauteng has the biggest population hey? But smallest land area..
The table below shows the population per province for both the Census 2011 and the Community Survey 2016. And as the table shows Gauteng has by far the biggest population of any province, even though it is the smallest of South Africa's provinces in terms of square kilometers. See our population density map page for more details.
And not only does Gauteng have the biggest population of any of South Africa's provinces, but it also had the fastest growing population over the last number of years, with it growing by 9.2% from Census 2011 to CS 2016. Gauteng's population makes up 24.1% of South Africa's total population. The sheer amount of people crammed into Gauteng is placing major constraints in the citizens of the province, as we showed earlier more than 40% of Gauteng commuters saying it takes more than 30 minutes to get to their place of work. For that article see here.
A drone shot of the Soweto Towers.
A large portion of the people living in Gauteng are not actually from Gauteng. I.e. they were not born in the province. According to the results of the Community Survey 2016, more than half of the people living in Gauteng were not even born in South Africa. Basically more than half of Gauteng's population are foreigners. We know a large number of them are miners from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana etc, but with Gauteng sitting with an unemployment rate close to 30% it is safe to assume a large portion of foreigners in Gauteng are actually unemployed. Question is did they come to Gauteng in the hopes of finding employment here? If so sadly for a large portion of local and foreigners migrating to Gauteng does not guarantee employment as the province is struggling to provide employment to all those who live in it. The bar chart below shows the percentage foreigners (those born outside of South Africa) living in each of South Africa's provinces. Gauteng being the clear outlier in the graphic.
Breakdown of Gauteng's population by gender? What percentage of Gauteng's population is male and what percentage is female, and how does this compare to the rest of South Africa, and has this change significantly since the Census?
Based on the CS2016 50.4% of Gauteng's population are males, while 49.6% of Gauteng's population are females. This ratio is exactly the same as the one recorded in the Census of 2011. Interestingly the male to female ratio in Gauteng is in contrast to that of South Africa as a whole. For South Africa's total population, 51% of the population are females while 49% are males. In Gauteng there are more males than females. The dominance of females in South Africa's population has declined slightly from Census 2011 when it was 51.3% to 51% in CS2016.
So now that we know a bit more about Gauteng and the number of people that stay in the province, what do they own in terms of general household goods? And how does this compare to the results of the Census in 2011? The table below shows a number of common household goods and the percentage of them owned by people in Gauteng compared to South Africa as a whole and comparing the results of the Community Survey 2016 to the Census numbers in 2011.
95.5% of households in Gauteng owns a cellphone, up from 93.8% in Census 2011, ownership of televisions have increased sharply with 86.5% of households in Gauteng owning a TV, while in Census 2011 this was at 80.8%. Motor-car ownership also increased over the last number of years in Gauteng, with 40.3% of households reported owning a motor-car during CS2016, while in 2011 during the Census it was at 38%. Radio ownership increased slightly from 69.8% to 70.1%
No real surprise that whether it was in Census 2011 or CS2016 Gauteng's ownership of selected household goods are higher than the national average. The reason we saying it is no real surprise, is that while Gauteng has a very high unemployment rate, it still South Africa's richest province and it is therefore expected that a larger percentage of households would report owning various household items.
No real surprise that whether it was in Census 2011 or CS2016 Gauteng's ownership of selected household goods are higher than the national average. The reason we saying it is no real surprise, is that while Gauteng has a very high unemployment rate, it still South Africa's richest province and it is therefore expected that a larger percentage of households would report owning various household items.