Pretoria - South Africa's population has risen to 57.73 million according to the 2018 mid-year population estimates released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on Monday.
"We are talking about mid-year population estimates which use the latest fertility, mortality and migration data to estimate the size of the population of the Republic of South Africa. Now, the mid-year estimates for 2018, we are sitting at 57.73 million people that are living in South Africa," said Statistician-General of South Africa Risenga Maluleke at a media briefing in Pretoria.
"In 2017 we were sitting at 56.8 million. We had 1.2 million births, a 0.2 net migration and we had about half a million deaths."
About 51 percent [about 29.5 million] of the people in South Africa are female, 29.5 percent of the population is aged younger than 15 years and 8.5 percent of the population [4.89 million] is 60 years or older.
Life expectancy at birth for 2018 is estimated at 61,1 years for males and 67,3 years for females.
Maluleke said the population estimates cover all residents in South Africa at the 2018 mid-year, and "are based one the latest available information".