Mzansi's population has grown to 62 million and the Census 2022, released by Statistics SA yesterday, has revealed that 1.3 million young people in Gauteng are school dropouts. This shocking number is followed by KwaZulu-Natal which has recorded 1 million young people who also dropped out of school, which suggests lower concentration into tertiary institutions. The stats also mean that over 40% of South African students do not make it to matric.

Stats revealed that Black Africans remain the dominant population group covering (81,4%) of the population, followed by coloureds at 8,2%, whites at 7,3% and Indians/Asians at 2,7%. There has been a steady decline in the proportion of the white population, from 11% in 1996 to 7,3% in 2022. The five provinces with positive net migration are Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Northern Cape and Mpumalanga.

South Africa is dubbed an economic hub known for attracting immigrants and political refugees from all parts of Africa who are said to be in the country to make a living. The number of immigrants stands at more than 2.4 million and includes just over 1 million Zimbabwean nationals and 416,564 Mozambicans. The population of Gauteng, the economic hub, stands at 15 million, the highest of the nine provinces, followed by KwaZulu-Natal with 12.4 million and the Western Cape with 7.4 million. One third of people who moved internally went to Gauteng and 15% to the Western Cape. Calvin Molongoana, the Census project director at Stats SA, emphasised that every individual present in South Africa in February of the previous year was included in the count. He said this included documented and undocumented immigrants. This encompasses tourists and those in transit. "Anyone within the country's borders, regardless of their legal status, documented or undocumented, was counted," said Molongoana