South African Population Grows Older, Black Population Stays Younger

• Statistics South Africa revealed that the country's black population remains relatively younger while other groups are ageing
• The report also revealed that the Eastern Cape had the most elderly citizens, and it was followed by the western Cape
• Limpopo had the lowest median age at 26, and the country's population of those aged 60 and higher has been increasing

Tebogo Mokwena, a dedicated Briefly News current affairs journalist, contributed coverage of international and local social issues like health, corruption, education, unemployment, labour, service delivery protests and immigration in South Africa during his seven years at Daily Sun and Vutivi Business News.

JOHANNESBURG — While the rest of the country grows older, black people in South Africa are not getting older, according to a recent report by Statistics South Africa. It showed that the population of black people is getting younger in comparison to other groups.

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What did Stats SA discover?

A report titled South African Age-Sex Structure, 1996-2022: Is the Population Ageing? revealed that South Africa's population of those who are 60 years and older is growing nationwide. The Eastern Cape recorded the most elder members of society with 12.3% of the elder people. The western Cape comes second with 11%, and the Free State was third with 10.6%.

The report also added that a large number of ageing members of society are white people. Their median age went up to 45in 2022 compared to 33 in 1996. Similarly, the Asian population's median age increased to 37.

What about black people?

By contrast, black people's median age remains the youngest at 27. They are well within the country's median age of 28, which went up by six years from 22 in 1996. Black people had the lowest percentage of elder people at 7.8%.

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Stories related to the population

• President Cyril Ramaphosa said a large number of the population suffers from high unemployment and poverty rates
• The Chairwoman of the Correctional Service as Portfolio committee said in January 2025 that there are more foreign nationals in prison than South Africans
• A DNA breakdown of the Afrikaner population revealed that they are descended from Dutch, French and German settlers

South Africans' views on the population stats

Netizens commenting on TimesLIVE's X account noted that black people do not age rapidly.

Big Beautiful Wydra asked:

"Y'all thought we were joking when we said black don't crack?"

Mxolisi G Buthelezi slammed the classification of races.

"There is no black African here. We are indigenous natives of this land. There's no white, yellow or blue African. Just African."

KennethDS said:

"Calling us black Africans is both vile and nonsensical."

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Goddess Ma'at said:

"Shoutout to the greatest genetic tapestry there ever was. the blueprint. thank you to high melanin made for the content, naturally protecting us from UV rays."

Vuyo Jobs said:

"I have an uncle who is in his mid-60s, yet he looks 40. He doesn't even take care of himself."

20 million South Africans without matric

In a related article, Briefly News reported in June 2024 that 20 million adults in the county did not have a matric certificate. Over 31% of the population in the country do not have higher qualifications.

The 2022 census showed that only 37.6% of the country's population completed natric, and a small percentage of the population has post-matric qualifications.

Source: Briefly News