World population/South Africa
Africa
Population of South Africa
65,453,083
Growing by 0.02 people every second
#24
world rank
0.79%
of world population
+1.05%
yearly change
+689,936
people this year
1,167,803
births a year
609,623
deaths a year
How the figure for South Africa is worked out
The United Nations puts the population of South Africa at 65,453,083 on 1 July 2026, and projects 66,143,019 for 1 July 2027. The counter above moves steadily between those two published points, which works out at about 0.02 people added every second.
That places South Africa at number 24 of the 237 countries and areas the United Nations reports, holding 0.79 per cent of everyone alive, and somewhere in the middle of the 58 entries in Africa.
Underneath that single number sit roughly 1,167,803 births and 609,623 deaths a year. The gap between them is natural increase; the difference between natural increase and the change in total population is migration.
None of this is counted in real time. No country registers births and deaths as they happen and publishes them to the second. The seconds ticking above are arithmetic between two annual reference points, and the broad figure is far more reliable than its final digits.
Other countries in Africa
Ranked by population.