Johannesburg - South Africa’s mid-year population is estimated to have increased to 58.78 million in 2019, a report by the national statistics agency showed on Monday.
Gauteng continued to record the largest share of South Africa’s population, with approximately 15.2 million people or 25.8 percent living in the province, Statistics South Africa said.
This was followed by KwaZulu-Natal with approximately 11.3 million people, while the Northern Cape remained the lowest populated with 1.26 million.
The report shows that approximately 51. 2 percent of the population, or about 30 million, is female. About 28. 8 percent is aged younger than 15 years while nine percent is 60 years or older.
For the period 2016–2021, Gauteng and Western Cape are likely to experience the largest inflow of migrants of approximately 1.64 million and 494 000 respectively.
"Life expectancy at birth for 2019 is estimated at 61.5 years for males and 67.7 years for females. The infant mortality rate for 2019 is estimated at 22.1 deaths per 1,000 live births," Stats SA said.
It said South Africa's HIV prevalence rate was about 13.5 percent, with the total number of people living with HIV estimated at 7.97 million in 2019.