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South Africa: Population

Millions of people · 1700–2025 · 227 observations · forecasts to 2031 · pop

2025
63.1 millionpeople
Change on 2024
+1.2%year on year
Average growth, 2015–2025
+1.3%a year

Population

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010M20M30M40M50M60M70M1700175018001850190019502000South AfricaSouth Africa, 1700: 992,377South Africa
ForecastPeople

Compare with other countries →Definition of Population

Recent values

Millions of people

YearValue
203167.5Forecast
203066.5Forecast
202965.9Forecast
202865.2Forecast
202764.5Forecast
202663.8Forecast
202563.1
202462.3
202361.6
202260.9
202160.2
202059.7
201958.9
201858.0
201757.2
201656.4

Sources

  • Maddison Project Database1700–2022
  • Federico & Tena-Junguito1800–1938
  • Gapminder1800–2023
  • Fouquin & Hugot (CEPII)1827–2014
  • Albers, Jerven & Suesse1900–2015
  • Penn World Table1950–2019
  • WDI (archive)1960–1997
  • World Development Indicators1960–2025
  • Bordo1970–1997
  • United Nations1970–2024
  • IMF World Economic Outlook1980–2024
  • OECD Economic Outlook2002–2025
  • Gapminder (forecast)2023–2030
  • IMF WEO (forecast)2024–2031
  • OECD Economic Outlook (forecast)2025–2027

Compare these sources →

South Africa documentation (PDF)

More for South Africa

Real GDP per capita (USD)Nominal GDPReal GDPInflationUnemployment rateGovernment debt (% of GDP)All 76 series →

Population elsewhere

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Please cite: Müller, K., Xu, C., Lehbib, M., & Chen, Z. (2025). The Global Macro Database: A New International Macroeconomic Dataset. NBER Working Paper 33714. BibTeX →

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