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General Information

Region		Southern Africa
Population (000, 2025)		64 747^a
Pop. density (per km2, 2025)		53^a
Capital city		Pretoria^c
Capital city pop. (000, 2025)		2 472.6^d
UN membership date		7 November 1945
Surface area (km2)		1 221 037^b
Sex ratio (m per 100 f)		94.8^a
National currency		Rand (ZAR)
Exchange rate (per US$)		18.7^e

Economic indicators

	2015	2020	2025
GDP: Gross domestic product (million current US$)	346 486	338 291	377 782^b
GDP growth rate (annual %, const. 2015 prices)	1.3	-6	0.6^b
GDP per capita (current US$)	6 108.0	5 586.0	5 976.0^b
Economy: Agriculture (% of Gross Value Added)	2.5	2.9	2.8^b
Economy: Industry (% of Gross Value Added)	26.3	25.8	27.3^b
Economy: Services and other activity (% of GVA)	71.2	71.4	69.9^b
Employment in agriculture^f (% of employed)	15.4	21.4	18.8^b
Employment in industry^f (% of employed)	21.4	17.6	17.7^b
Employment in services^f (% employed)	63.2	61	63.5^b
Unemployment (% of labour force)	25.1	29.2	33.7^f
Labour force participation rate (female/male pop. %)	51.0 / 65.0	48.7 / 61.3	53.1 / 64.4^f
CPI: Consumer Price Index^g,h (2010=100)	130	164	202^e
Agricultural production index (2014-2016=100)	101	111	114^b
International trade: exports (million current US$)	80 036	85 227^f	110 109^e
International trade: imports (million current US$)	85 267	68 943^f	101 240^e
International trade: balance (million current US$)	- 5 232	16 284^f	8 869^e
Balance of payments, current account (million US$)	- 14 944	6 771	- 2 384^e

Social indicators

	2015	2020	2025
Population growth rate (average annual %)	2.3	1.6	1.1^a
Urban population (% of total population)	64.8	66.9^d	...
Urban population growth rate (average annual %)	2.2^j	...	...
Fertility rate, total (live births per woman)	2.4	2.3	2.2^a
Life expectancy at birth (females/males, years)	67.0 / 60.8	67.9 / 62.2	70.0 / 63.0^a
Population age distribution^k (0-14/60+ years old, %)	28.3 / 8.0	27.0 / 9.4	25.7 / 10.4^a
International migrant stock^l (000/% of total pop.)	3 162.6 / 5.6	2 639.1 / 4.4	2 631.1 / 4.1^e
Refugees and others of concern to UNHCR (000)	912.6	266.7	163.4^e
Under five mortality rate (per 1000 live births)	39.1	29.3	30.5^a
Health: Current expenditure^m (% of GDP)	8.1	9	8.8ⁿ
Health: Physicians (per 1 000 pop.)	0.8	0.8^d	0.8ⁿ
Education: Primary gross enrol. ratio (f/m per 100 pop.)	104.2 / 110.3	98.9 / 103.6	99.7 / 105.1ⁿ
Education: Lowr. sec. gross enrol. ratio (f/m per 100 pop.)	105.6 / 102.9	106.3 / 105.3	101.5 / 103.2ⁿ
Education: Upr. Sec. gross enrol. ratio (f/m per 100 pop.)	103.9 / 105.8	110.0 / 94.0	113.8 / 98.4ⁿ
Intentional homicide rate (per 100 000 pop.)	32.9	33	43.7ⁿ
Seats held by women in national parliaments (%)	41.5	46.4^o	44.6^o

Environment and infrastructure indicators

	2015	2020	2025
Individuals using the Internet^f (per 100 inhabitants)	51.9	72.1^p	75.7^b
Research & Development expenditure (% of GDP)	0.7	0.6	...
Threatened species (number)	527	597	1 039^e
Forested area (% of land area)	14.2	14.1	14ⁿ
CO2 emission estimates (million tons/tons per capita)	465.7 / 8.2	444.6 / 7.3	437.1 / 7.0ⁿ
Energy production, primary (Petajoules)	6 465	6 219	5 789ⁿ
Energy supply per capita (Gigajoules)	100	89	87ⁿ
Tourist/visitor arrivals at national borders^q (000)	8 904^r	2 802	5 698ⁿ
Important sites for terrestrial biodiversity protected (%)	17.8	19.5	19.9^e
Pop. using safely managed drinking water (urban/rural, %)	84.3 / ...	81.6 / ...	80.5 / ...ⁿ
Pop. using safely managed sanitation (urban/rural, %)	70.9 / ...	72.5 / ...	73.1 / ...ⁿ
Net Official Development Assist. received (% of GNI)	0.42	0.36	0.4^b

Footnotes

a		Projected est. (medium fertility variant).
b		2023
c		Pretoria is the administrative capital, Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein is the judiciary capital.
d		2019
e		2024
f		Estimate.
g		All urban consumers.
h		Calculated by the UN Statistics Division from national indices.
i		Areas not elsewhere specified.
j		Data refers to a 5-year period preceding the reference year.
k		Calculated by the UN Statistics Division.
l		Including refugees.
m		Data refer to fiscal years beginning 1 April.
n		2022
o		Data at 1 January of the reporting year.
p		Population aged 10 years and over.
q		Excluding transit.
r		Break in the time series.