Stats SABusinessLive reports that Statistics SA indicated on Monday in its 2019 midyear population estimates that there are about 58.78-million people living in SA today.  

The key findings from the report include the following:  Just over half of SA's population are women at 51.2% (or about 30-million); about a quarter of South Africans (25.8%) live in Gauteng (about 15.2-million people) followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 19.2% (about 11.3-million); more than one in four South Africans (28.8%) are 15 years old or younger; most of these young people live in Gauteng (21.5%) and KwaZulu-Natal (21.1%); and almost one in 10 South Africans (9%) are aged 60 or older.  Stats SA commented on its website on Monday:  “Using the demographic window of opportunity‚ the youth bulge in SA could be harnessed to unleash a potential demographic dividend.  However‚ the majority of SA’s youth often falls within one of three categories: uneducated, unemployed, and unemployable.”  It added:  “Using a money-metric approach‚ a fifth of SA’s youth (18–34 years old) fell below the lower bound poverty line of R664 per person per month.”


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