Talk:Demographics of South Africa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is supported by the WikiProject on Countries, which collaborates on nations and related subjects on Wikipedia. Please participate by editing the article Demographics of South Africa, or visit the project page for more details.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on its quality.

Demographics of South Africa is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

I took out the sentence that said that the Chinese were not classified as Asian, but as whites. See the related section in Asians in South Africa. There were some East Asians that were considered honourary whites, but many Chinese were classified as Asian. 69.158.5.191 02:11, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

I took out the part that said that some white South Africans of Portuguese descent stem from slaves the Dutch brought from Indonesia. It is not true because in the East Indies the Dutch labelled any Roman Catholic native "Portuguese" so those slaves were actually not Portuguese but contributed to the make-up of the Coloured and Asian populations (Drepanopulos)

I have heard that there is about 1 million Portugese in SA. Is that true? Are they classified as whites? �Dr.Poison 13:07, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

I don't know the numbers, but I can confidently say that Portugese people in South Africa are considered white, by any local standard.

ManicParroT 06:42, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population growth rate

Which reference is this from? The figures don't quite add up 1.82%-1.26%=0.56% (population growth should be births less deaths less emigrants). The small migration figure doesn't really influence things. --Uxejn 21:45, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

The death rate and population growth estimates for 2006 come from Statistics South Africa. I couldn't find the birth rates among SSA's online publications, only an estimate of 2.73 children per female in 2006. I hasten to add that it clashes with the lower fertility estimates from the SA Department of Health so there's considerable uncertainty there. The death rate is accurate though, as almost all deaths are registered and then added up at the end of the year, unlike the population growth rates since a census was last held in 2001. The birth rate of 18.2/1000 in this demographics article is a holdover from the CIA Factbook that was previously used as the source for SA demographics, before I began plugging in the more reliable numbers from Statistics South Africa and other South African agencies. The CIA's projected birth rates are off by some undetermined margin as the impact of AIDS was overestimated by them (fewer mothers around = less children). The CIA presumed a 21.5% HIV infection rate in 2003 (a projection based on outdated estimates) when the actual number from three reliable studies between 2002 and 2005 show 11% or slightly less. If somebody can find reliable birth rates for South Africa the picture should definitely clear up. Otherwise we'll have to wait for the 2011 census. -- Dell Day 07:04, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Ethnic groups

Ethnic groups:

   black 79.5%, white 9.2%, Coloured 8.9%, Asian 2.5% (2006 est.) 

Black, white or coloured are not ethnic groups, but races. Ethnics groups of South Africa are xhosa, kwazulu or afrikaners. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.60.64.227 (talk) 15:50, 10 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] White Emigration Figures

Since 1994, several hundred thousand white South Africans have emigrated abroad. This figure is often erroneously quoted as being over one million, but in fact the total population of South Africans living outside of the country is less than a half million (this false information is possibly based on the fact that almost one million white South Africans have moved to another country during the period of 1994-2005, but the majority have returned to South Africa and not permanently settled in the foreign country). Similarly, it is often quoted that there are a half a million white South Africans in London, when in fact there are less than 150 000 in the whole of the UK. There are in fact more British Citizens resident in South Africa (212 000, according to the BBC's 2006 report) than there are South Africans in the United Kingdom.

I contest this, but I'm just going to tag it for citations rather than remove it. I have put different numbers in brain drain, and I'm interested in getting decent sources on this sort of thing.

As is said, the stats on the issue are tricky, and can be very misleading. Nevertheless, the verifiable facts I've found contradict parts of the passage above. Granted, many of the 800 000 to 1.2 million South Africans working in Britain these days return home, but I'd like to establish just how many. I don't think the claim of half a million South Africans in London is that far off. Half a million permanently settled is almost certainly a lie, though. SA Institute of Race Relations says 796 000 have emigrated since 1991 (which is support by the Fin24 article linked at the bottom of this page), and that is a large proportion of SA's white population (but less, as said, than a million). I've always felt double-citizens throw a spanner in the statistical works. I'd love to see decent statistics on this, because I think people tend to hide their dual citizenships, making fact-finding difficult. There are still many ancestral ties to EU countries, and they don't appear in emigration figures.Warrickball (talk) 23:30, 1 June 2008 (UTC)