🇿🇦South Africa

Pretoria

Africa

Upper middle income

ZAF

Compare

Population

64.7M

1.2%as of 2025

Fertility Rate

2.21

births/woman

Life Expectancy

66.3y

GDP / capita

$6.6K

Pop. Growth

1.15%

Net Migration

146.4K

Population over time

Total population · observed (solid) and UN medium projection to 2100 (dashed)

Source: World Bank · UN World Population Prospects 2024

Fertility rate over time

Births per woman · dashed line = replacement (2.1)

Source: World Bank

GDP over time

Current US$

Source: World Bank

Where immigrants come from

Largest foreign-born communities in South Africa by country of birth (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.

🇿🇼Zimbabwe1.1M(41.7%)

+97%

🇲🇿Mozambique412.1K(16.0%)

+10%

🇱🇸

Population projections to 2100

Official UN projections — Low / Medium / High variants

No data available

Source: UN World Population Prospects 2024

Population pyramid (2025)

Age & sex structure · share of total population by 5-year cohort

Male31.5MTotal 64.7M33.2MFemale

Source: birthrate.io model

Population pyramid by ethnicity

Modeled age structure by ethnic group — younger cohorts blend toward the composition of births, so diaspora & minority groups skew young

Black AfricanColouredWhiteIndian / Asian

Source: birthrate.io model (census + births composition)

Ethnic composition over time

Share of total population by ethnic / racial group

Black AfricanColouredWhiteIndian / Asian

Source: National census

GDP per capita over time

Current US$

Source: World Bank

Life expectancy over time

Years at birth

Source: World Bank

Society, housing & beliefs

Family, crime, housing and religion indicators

Homicide rate

43.7

per 100,000

Divorce rate

—

per 1,000

Births outside marriage

—

of births

Home ownership

—

of households

Homicide rate over time

Intentional homicides per 100,000 people

Source: World Bank / UNODC

Religious composition (2020)

Share of population by religion

Source: Pew Research / census

Net migration over time

Net migrants per year (immigrants − emigrants)

Source: World Bank

Foreign-born population over time

Immigrant / diaspora population living in the country

Source: World Bank / UN DESA

Foreign-born share over time

Foreign-born residents as % of the population

Source: World Bank / UN DESA

🇲🇼Malawi220.4K(8.6%)

+199%

🇪🇹Ethiopia104.4K(4.1%)

+369%

🇨🇩Congo, Dem. Rep.57.5K(2.2%)

+68%

🇬🇧United Kingdom55.1K(2.1%)

−35%

🇸🇴Somalia, Fed. Rep.42.5K(1.7%)

+37%

🇳🇦Namibia34.3K(1.3%)

−17%

🇧🇩Bangladesh30.6K(1.2%)

+128%

🇨🇬Congo, Rep.29.1K(1.1%)

+20%

🇮🇳India27.7K(1.1%)

−4%

Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024

Where the South Africa diaspora lives

Top destinations for people born in South Africa who now live abroad (2024) · arrow shows change since 2010.

🇬🇧United Kingdom245.4K(24.4%)

+24%

🇦🇺Australia213.4K(21.2%)

+37%

🇺🇸United States161.5K(16.1%)

+80%

🇳🇿New Zealand102K(10.1%)

+105%

🇨🇦Canada52.6K(5.2%)

+23%

🇳🇱Netherlands31K(3.1%)

+141%

🇲🇿Mozambique21K(2.1%)

+14%

🇿🇼Zimbabwe20.3K(2.0%)

+8%

🇮🇪Ireland18.9K(1.9%)

+132%

🇮🇱Israel14.5K(1.4%)

+26%

🇵🇹Portugal14.2K(1.4%)

+46%

🇸🇿Eswatini12.9K(1.3%)

+5%

Source: UN DESA International Migrant Stock 2024

Abortion rate over time

Induced abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–49

Source: WHO / Guttmacher (compiled)

Christian86.0%
Unaffiliated11.0%
Muslim2.0%
Other1.0%