South Africa is a country in Africa, known for its diverse wildlife and Cape Winelands. It has a population of 65.5 million, making it the 24th largest country in the world.. Its capital is Pretoria. South Africa has a diverse economy with strong mining and financial sectors.
* As of 1/8/2026
1 birth
Every 27.0 seconds
1 death
Every 51.8 seconds
1 immigrant
Every 4.0 minutes
1 person
Every 45.7 seconds
295K
500K
750K
1M
2.5M
5M
6.6M
The last national census of the South African population was carried out in 2011.
Turning to demographics, the bureau in charge of providing statistics provided an estimate in 2010, which included five racial groups. Of the total South African population at the time, 79.4 percent declared themselves to be Black African while 9.2 percent were shown as White, 8.8 percent colored and 2.6 percent Indian or Asian. There was a final category shown as unspecified / other but the results were negligible and as such were ultimately omitted.
The country uses 11 official languages, including Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Swati, Tshivenda, and Ndebele.
Black African (81.4%)
Colored (8.2%)
White (7.3%)
Indian/Asian (2.7%)
Other (0.4%)
The main religion in South Africa is Christian.
Christian
ancestral, tribal, animist, or Other traditional African religions
nothing in particular
Muslim
Other
In terms of religions across the population, 81.2% of South Africans identify with a Christian based faith, 3.7% identify with other faiths, and 15% are not affiliated with any faith in particular.
The median age across the population is approximately 27.1 years of age.
Accessible and safe drinking water is a concern for 6.8% of the population, while 93.2% of the entire population have improved access to drinking water. In terms of access to sanitation facilities, the numbers shift quite a bit though. Only 66.4% of the population have access, while 33.6% still struggle with this facet of life.
18.8% of the population is estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, with approximately 7 million individuals affected.Roughly 94.4% of the population is determined to be literate by age 15 and the country spends about 5.9% of its GDP on education.
Humans are thought to have inhabited the land of South Africa for more than 100,000 years, but the population records don’t reflect quite that far back. The first inhabitants were the Koisan people and the country was entirely African until Europeans began colonizing throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. The Dutch further colonized the territory during the 1700s.
Voortrekkers settled several Boer regions following the Invasion of the Cape Colony in 1795 and 1806. After the discovery of diamonds in the land in the 19th century, these people fought with the British Empire for the right to control the mines. The British were victorious and South Africa became a self-governing nation under their rule in the early 1900s.
From the years 1948-1994, South Africa was divided because of apartheid laws that segregated the indigenous people from the white minority. These tensions are still easing today.