In 2019 South Africa had a population of 58.5 million people. The country has a land surface area of 1,220,000 km². Of this, around 11% of the land is arable. There are significant ecological variations ranging from dry conditions (desert and semi desert) in the west to two bands of higher rainfall in the east. South Africa is considered to be a water scarce country, with this scarcity exacerbated by extreme social and economic inequality. Just 28% of the land surface receives 600 mm or more of rain per annum. This means that most of the land is suitable only for livestock or wildlife production.
Socio-economic indicators
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Land Area
121,309,000 ha
GDP/Capita
13,311.9 USD
Total population
59,392,300
Urban population
66.4 %
Land-related indicators
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NewsBrowse all
01 March 2023
Corruption Watch is participating in an eight-country study on land-related corruption and a recent baseline survey of four local communities suggests that not only has corruption become deeply embedded in issues of land redress, but it is perpetrated by figures of authority, including municipal…
20 February 2023
Njalo ngonyaka sikhokh’ imali yamasim’ enduneni (Every year we pay land fees to the chief), goes the line in the hit song, Imbizo, released in 1992 by maskandi legends Phuzekhemisi and his late brother Khethani. Nithi siyithathaphi imali? it asks a little later. Where do you think we get the money…
30 January 2023
NELGA has put out nine country profiles about South Sudan, South Africa, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Egypt, and Mauritania. These profiles give information about pastoralism and small-scale agriculture in these countries. Through research on the current state of land governance…
By 2019 16.8% of households lived in informal dwellings across South Africa’s nine major metropolitan municipalities.
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06 August 2024
Photo: Kandukuru Nagarjun, via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
The recent series of ALIGN articles shed light on how civil society, impacted communities and rights defenders across the world have used strategies such as legal action, publishing of mining contracts and stakeholder dialogues to change approaches…
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Over the last two decades, platinum mining has expanded exponentially onto communal land in the North West Province of South Africa. This mineral-rich area falls under various traditional authorities – including the prominent Bakgatla ba Kgafela – and is one of the world’s largest platinum-…
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