Access to basic services shows upward trend: Stats SA

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The 2022 Census released by Stats SA shows that access to basic services has generally shown an upward trend from 2001 to 2022.

It indicates that over 80% of households in the country has access to piped water, either inside their home or in the yard.

The Census however points out that the Eastern Cape and Limpopo still face challenges in accessing pipeline water.

It shows that 4.5% households in the Northern Cape still use bucket toilets, while KwaZulu-Natal shows a mix of flush toilets, pit latrines and chemical toilets.

The Census further shows that households in South Africa increased from the 9 million in 1996, to 17.8 million in 2022.

The data shows that the number of households who reside in informal dwellings has declined from 13.6% in 2011 to 8.1% in 2022.

It further indicates that households residing in formal dwellings increased to 88.5%.

The data shows that household headship is evenly split between males and females, however the highest number of female headed households were found in KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Limpopo.

According to Stats SA, Black Africans remain the dominant race accounting for 81% of the population, followed by Coloureds at 8.2%, Whites at 7.3% and Indians at 2.7%.

The #SACensus2022 report shows that there were 50,5 million black Africans in 2022, accounting for over 81% of the South African #population, followed by coloureds (5,1 million).
Read more here: https://t.co/swpLBv5OAR#StatsSA #SACensus2022 #Census2022 pic.twitter.com/AS7gIVZC9r

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) October 10, 2023

The data shows that there has been a steady decline in the proportion of the White population in the country from 11% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2022.

Stats SA notes that the decline in the White population could be a function of a decrease in fertility or migration.

Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke released the Census results in Pretoria: