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In this article we take a look at the electricity distributed for use per province per month, as reported by Statistics South Africa. So which province in South Africa uses up the most electricity? Is it a large mining province such as North West, or a populous province such as Gauteng?
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Electricity distributed per province
The line chart below shows the number of gigawatt-hours distributed to the various provinces of South Africa on a monthly basis. So which province is using the most amount of electricity on South Africa? We trust the answer to this question will not surprise regular visitors to our website.
Gauteng uses by far the most amount of electricity of any of South Africa's provinces. In a distant second place is KwaZulu-Natal, with the third place being a surprise which is Mpumalanga. Clearly electricity usage is not correlated with economic size as the Western Cape is South Africa's third biggest province in terms of economic size, yet only the 5th biggest electricity user of South Africa's nine provinces.
The summary below shows the relative contribution each province makes to total electricity usage in South Africa as at January 2019 (ranked from biggest to smaller user)
The below shows the relative contribution of each province to South Africa's total economy (as per our article a few days ago), and as can be seen below and the smmary above, electricity usage is not linked to economic size it seems:
While Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the biggest electricity users and two biggest contributing provinces to South Africa's total GDP, one should keep in mind that they are the two provinces with the highest populations in South Africa too. According to the 2018 mid year population estimates Gauteng maked up 25.5% or 14.7 million of the total population of South Africa which is at 57.7 million, while KwaZulu-Natal made up 19.7% or 11.4 million out of South Africa's 57.7 million people. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape coming in in 3rd and 4th place respectively in terms of population numbers.
This leads us to believe the large amount of electricity being used in Mpumalanga and North West is due to mining. With Mpumalanga being known for its coal mining industry and the North West being known for its platinum mining.
The summary below shows the relative contribution each province makes to total electricity usage in South Africa as at January 2019 (ranked from biggest to smaller user)
- Gauteng: 23.76%
- KwaZulu-Natal: 19.22%
- Mpumalanga: 15.59%
- North West:12.79%
- Western Cape: 10.22%
- Limpopo: 6.82%
- Free State: 4.50%
- Eastern Cape: 3.92%
- Northern Cape: 3.18%
The below shows the relative contribution of each province to South Africa's total economy (as per our article a few days ago), and as can be seen below and the smmary above, electricity usage is not linked to economic size it seems:
- Gauteng: 34.82%
- KwaZulu-Natal: 16.05%
- Western Cape: 13.86%
- Eastern Cape: 7.53%
- Mpumalanga: 7.25%
- Limpopo: 7.20%
- North West: 5.91%
- Free State: 5.20%
- Northern Cape: 2.20%
While Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal are the biggest electricity users and two biggest contributing provinces to South Africa's total GDP, one should keep in mind that they are the two provinces with the highest populations in South Africa too. According to the 2018 mid year population estimates Gauteng maked up 25.5% or 14.7 million of the total population of South Africa which is at 57.7 million, while KwaZulu-Natal made up 19.7% or 11.4 million out of South Africa's 57.7 million people. The Western Cape and Eastern Cape coming in in 3rd and 4th place respectively in terms of population numbers.
This leads us to believe the large amount of electricity being used in Mpumalanga and North West is due to mining. With Mpumalanga being known for its coal mining industry and the North West being known for its platinum mining.