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Informal houses, such as shacks, have decreased significantly since 2001, from 16.4% to 8.1% in 2022, according to Stats SA.

The latest census report was released by statistician-general Risenga Maluleke on Wednesday.

The census counted 17.8-million households nationally. Gauteng led with 5.3-million (29.8%), followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 2.9-million. The least populous provinces were Northern Cape with 333,553 households (1.9%) and Free State with 845,250, accounting for 4.7% of households nationally.

Formal dwellings increased from 77.6% in 2011 to 88.5% in 2022.

The Northern Cape accounted for 12% of informal households, followed by the Western Cape at 11.1% and Gauteng 11%.

While the number of informal households was reported to be declining, Gauteng municipalities have been battling with growing informal settlements. 

Tshwane metro reported having about 227 informal settlements spread across its seven regions, with an estimated 345,710 households in these settlements.

Formalisation of informal settlements has been moving at a slow pace. Tshwane aimed to formalise eight informal settlements in the 2021/2022 financial year and 52 were targeted to be formalised three years after that.

TimesLIVE