Provinces, bordering countries and polutaion

South Africa is divided into 9 provinces. These provinces are the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, North Western Province and the Limpopo.

You can reach these provinces by flying to one of the domestic or international airports. The other option you have is to rent a car and drive yourself. Remember that South Africa occupies 4% of the continent’s total land mass and covers an area of around 1 221 040 square kilometers.

South Africa measures around 1 600 km from North to South and again almost the same from East to West. South Africa is three times the size of Texas and five times larger than Great Britain. So make sure you have a map and a lot of time to see and experience everything 🙂

South Africa’s geographic co-ordinates are 29 00 S, 24 00 E and has 6 bordering counties and they are from the eastern to the western side, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho (which is completely surrounded by South Africa).

According to the census of 2011, South Africa has a population of nearly 52 million of which 79% are black (African), 9% white, 9% coloured, 2.5% Indian/Asian and 0.5% other.  Around 75% are Christian, 2% Muslim and 1.5% Hindu.

Gauteng is the highest populated province with 23.7% of the population, followed by KwaZulu Natal with 19.8%.  Eastern Cape has 12.7%, Western Cape 11.3%, Limpopo 10.4%, North West 6.8% and Free State 5.3%.  Although the Northern Cape is the largest province covering around a third of the whole of South Africa, it is an arid land area and the population is only 2.2%.

Around 21% of the population are living with aids and the life expectancy is 43. The unemployment rate is close to 26% and around 50% are living under the poverty line (data from 2003).

The time in South Africa operates two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (standard time +02:00 UTC/GMT) throughout the year. Therefor it is an hour ahead of Central European Winter Time and 7 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Winter Time.