South Africa’s population rose by an average of
657 532 annually between 1996 and 2002, bringing the total figure from 42-million in 1996 to 46-million in 2002.
The figures were published in a report by the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) which was released by the University of South Africa on Monday.
The document contains population estimates by population group, magisterial district, metropolitan area and province for 1996 and 2002.
In this period, the black population increased by an average 1,73% (581 637) per annum from 32,2-million to 35,7-million.
This increase was 52 times greater than that of the Asian population (11 293 per year), 45 times greater than the white population (12 897 per annum) and 11 times greater than the coloured population (51 705 annually).
The coloured population increased from 3,5-million to
3,8-million, Asians from 1-million to 1,1-million and whites from 5,1-million to 5,2-million.
The Northern Cape not only has the smallest population of the nine provinces, but is also the slowest-growing. Its population grew by 1,05% per annum from 837 828 in 1996 to 892 248 in 2002.
KwaZulu-Natal has the largest population, namely 9,6-million, of which more than 8-million are blacks. Gauteng is second with 8,5-million residents of which just more than 2-million are whites.
With regard to metropolitan areas, 5,9-million live on the Rand, 3,9-million in the Durban complex and 2,8-million in the south Western Cape, mostly the Cape Peninsula.
The magisterial district which showed the highest total population growth is Nkomazi in northern KwaZulu-Natal — its population increased from
256 012 in 1996 to 290 409 in 2002.
Soweto has the largest population for blacks (1,029667) and Pretoria the largest for whites
(470 686).
Illegal immigrants (mostly hailing from other countries in Africa) are an unknown factor and were not included in the calculations.
HIV/Aids was taken into account only as a moderate population reducing factor. The BMR proposes to release a more comprehensive model early next year. – Sapa