The census: fascinating facts and figures

IsiZulu remains the country’s most predominant language, spoken by almost a quarter (24.4%) of the country’s households, according to Census 2022.

The number of IsiZulu speakers appears to be on the increase, with almost two percentage points more households reporting speaking the language than the 22.7% of 2011.

In second place is isiXhosa, with 16.3% of households, predominately in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape (by 81.8% and 31.4% of those province’s populations respectively).

In third place is Afrikaans, a language that appears to be on the decline and is spoken mostly in the Western Cape and Northern Cape (41.2% and 54.6% of those populations respectively).

In 2022, 10.6% of households reported Afrikaans as their most spoken language compared to 13.5% in 2011 and 14.5% in 1996. Afrikaans now narrowly edges out Sepedi, reported as the most often spoken language by 10% of households.

English is the fifth most spoken language in households, with 8.7% of people reporting they speak it most often at home.

Only 0.02% of households reported mostly speaking the country’s newest official language, South African Sign Language.

In terms of religion, most of the country’s residents said they were Christian, at a whopping 85.3%.

In second place, traditional African religion was reported as the faith of choice by 7.8% of those counted by Stats SA. In third place was no religion at all, with 2.9% of respondents saying they had no religious affiliation. After that was Islam, with 1.6%, and Hinduism with 1.1%.

In terms of interpersonal relationships, white people are most likely to be married with 54.8% of those over the age of 12 reported being legally wed, while 5.7% reported being divorced.

Conversely, Africans were the least likely to be married, with 19.2% saying they were wed while less than 1% were divorced.

In addition, the data presented by Stats SA appears to show that since democracy, our population has grown. The data shows between 1996 and 2022, there has been a large decrease in the proportion of younger people up to the age of 14, and a marked increase in 2022 of 35- to 39-year olds.

The only province with fewer women than men is Gauteng with a 49.5% female population. The province with the highest female population was Limpopo with 52.8%.

Among the bits of good news contained in Census 2022 is the decline in the number of orphans. The number of paternal orphans, children up to the age of 17 who had lost their father, had decreased from 12.1% in 2011 to 8.9% in 2022. The number of maternal orphans had also declined from 3% in 2011 to 2.3% in 2022. The number of children who had lost both their parents had declined from 3.9% in 2011 to 2.5% in 2022.

“The percentage of children aged one to 17 who are orphans is decreasing in South Africa. KwaZulu-Natal observed the highest decrease in all orphanhood types from 2011 to 2022. Paternal orphans are highest in all censuses and provinces,” the Stats SA report said.

In terms of the homeless population, there were more homeless people identified in Gauteng than in any other province, with 25,384 people.

The Western Cape is in second position with a reported 9,743 homeless people. Young adults aged between 25 and 29 were more likely to be homeless compared to any other age group. 

Most homeless people surveyed said they were homeless because they had no job and no income. The second biggest self-identified cause was drug or alcohol use, followed by arguments with family and friends, and parents passing away. The least cited cause was an inability to afford accommodation.

Access to the internet has increased dramatically between 2011 and 2022, with 64.8% of people having no access to internet services in 2011 compared to 21.1% in 2022. Most residents of South Africa report using their cellphone to access the internet, at 60.5% compared to 16.3% in 2011.

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