Statistics South Africa has today revealed the latest census data collected. Of the nearly 52 million people living here, the majority of them are under the age of 39.

Our population has grown by approximately seven million to 51 770 560 between 2001 and 2011, and 14 450 161 households were counted – up from 2001’s 11 205 705. The average size of the household was 3,4 people, down from 3,8 in 2001. 77,6% of people live in a formal dwelling (68,5% in 2001), 7,9% in traditional dwellings (14,8% in 2001) and 13,6% in informal dwellings (16,4% in 2001).

This data and more was released this morning in Pretoria by statistician-general Pali Lehohla, and handed to President Jacob Zuma, himself responsible for a number of South Africans.

The Business Day reported:

Divided by gender, 26 582 769 are female and 25 188 791 male. Along racial lines, 41 000 938 (79,2%) are black, 4 615 401 are coloured, 1 286 930 are Indian or Asian, and 5 586 838 (9,6%) are white.

The largest age group is the under-fives, which Statistics South Africa’s demographic analysis executive director, Diego Iturralde, said was due either to an overadjustment for the 5-14 age group in the 1996 and 2001 censuses, or to the HIV pandemic tapering off.

Of these, 73,5% attend an educational institution (71,5% in 2001; 70,1% in 1996), while the proportion attending private educational institutions has increased from 5,1% in 2001 to 7,3%. Most of those attending private institutions are doing so in Gauteng (16,7%), followed by the Western Cape (7,5%) and the Free State (6,4%).

What will please some is that the proportion of the population that has completed higher education has increased to 11,8%, from 8,4% in 2001 and 7,1% in 1996.

Other interesting information included the fact that “annual household income had more than doubled in the 10 years from 2001 to 2011, to R103 204 from R48 385.”

Female-headed households still fared worse than male-headed households with average female-headed household income coming in at just above half of that of the male-headed household income – R67 330.

Whitey’s remained the richest with “white-headed households earning an average annual income of R365 134, black-headed households R60 613, coloured-headed households R112 172 and households headed by Indians or Asians R251 541.”

65% of South Africans have no access to the Internet, 84,7% of have access to electricity, up from 69,7% in 2001 – the Western Cape leads the provinces with 93,4%. People with no access to running water dropped from 15,6% to 8,8%, and 46,3% of South Africans now have access to tap water, up from 32,3%.

The Mail and Guardian also has a comprehensive summary available, here, and if you are on Twitter, search the hashtag #Census2011 for even more information.

If you have an iPad, you can go to the iTunes store and download the Stats SA application.

[Sources: BusinessDay, EWN]