KwaZulu-Natal’s population has grown to 12.4 million, making it the second-largest province in South Africa.
This was revealed by Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli during a provincial government lekgotla held in Mayville on Tuesday.
He noted a 1.9% growth in the population since 2011, citing Census 2022 data, along with a significant shift of people towards urban areas.
“The eThekwini metropolitan area had the largest population, 4.2 million, followed by uMgungundlovu district at 1.2 million. These two regions are home to almost half the province’s population (44%),” Ntuli stated..
The Premier highlighted that Msunduzi, Newcastle and Alfred Duma are the three largest local municipalities, while Endumeni, Newcastle, and KwaDukuza recorded the highest growth rates.
“What is of interest is that the province is urbanising, with almost half the population in the districts with urban centres of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, and secondary nodes of Newcastle and KwaDukuza showing growth of over 3%,” he said.
Ntuli acknowledged the strain that this places on essential services and housing. “These trends in urbanisation continue to place significant pressure on service and housing delivery,” he noted.
KwaZulu-Natal’s working-age population (15-64 years) now makes up 66% of the total, while the proportion of children under 14 has declined. The Premier also expressed concerns regarding non-natural deaths, noting that the province has the highest proportion of such fatalities.
“In terms of natural causes of death, diabetes mellitus was the leading underlying cause of death in KwaZulu-Natal (6.7%), followed by tuberculosis and cerebrovascular diseases,” he said.
The Lekgotla will discuss how to respond to these demographic shifts, with further details expected in Ntuli’s State of the Province Address on February 28.