By Richard Mantu

RELATED LINKS: Census 2001: Municipalities by household Key Results Census in Brief

The South African population grew from 40.5 million people in October 1996 to 44.8 million people in October 2001, the Census 2001 results show.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) reported today in Pretoria that the ten percent population growth, an annual growth of two percent, had a 17 percent undercount after a post enumeration survey was done to check the level of error on the census results.

Releasing the Census 2001 figures, Ros Hirschowitz, the Director-General of quality and methodology at Stats SA said there was a 95 percent confidence that the proportional number of between 44 427 683 and 45 211 872 was accurate with a 0.9 percent margin of error.

According to the report, Gauteng had the largest population growth with 20 percent, followed by the Western Cape with 14 percent.

The Eastern Cape and Free State each had growth less that three percent, while the Northern Cape experienced a 2.1 percent drop in population.

In terms of population numbers in provinces, KwaZulu-Natal had the largest population of 9.4 million, followed by Gauteng with 8.8 million, while the province with the smallest population was Northern Cape with 0.8 million people.

The Eastern Cape had a population of 6.4 million, Limpopo 5.3 million, the Western Cape 4.5 million, North West 3.7 million, Mpumalanga 3.1 million and the Free State 2.7 million.

Black Africans constituted more than three quarters of the total South African population by 79.0 percent (35.4 million) whereas whites constituted 9.6 percent (4.3 million), Coloureds 8.9 (4.0 million), and Indians/Asians constituted 2.5 percent (1.1 million).

Of the total 44.8 million people, 21.4 million (47.8 percent) were males and 23.4 million (52.2 percent) were female, Stats SA said.

The number of South African households also grew to 11.2 million in October 2001 as compared 9.0 million in 1996.

Statistician-General Pali Lehohla however said the figure did not include households of individuals living in institutions, hostels or other living quarters. - BuaNews

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