The trend is highlighted in a the December edition of ‘Fast facts’, a report from the Centre for Risk Analysis at the IRR entitled ‘Profiling the provinces’. It provides a snapshot view of South Africa’s nine provinces through the lens of key socio-economic indicators and includes a brief summary for each province including data on demographics, the economy, education, health and social security, living conditions, politics and government, as well as crime and security.
The most important patterns to emerge from the data is that people continue te migrate from badly managed provinces to those better governed. Gauteng and the Western Cape are the primary destinations.
Though Gauteng is the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces, covering only 1.5% of the country’s land area, it accounts for just over a third (34.1%) of the national economy, and has the highest GDP per head (R80 945). It also has the highest levels of in-migration – with net migration into the province between 2011 and 2016 totalling 981 290 people.
The Western Cape – where people enjoy the highest life expectancy, and where the labour market participation rate (68.0%) and labour absorption rate (53.9%) are the highest in the country – draws the second largest number of migrants in search of a better life. Net migration into the Western Cape between 2011 and 2016 amounted to 292 372 people.
The report from the IRR says people with higher levels of education are more likely to be absorbed into the labour market; in 2016, the Western Cape had the highest National Senior Certificate (matric) bachelor’s pass rate, the requirement for getting into university.
Gauteng, in turn, boasts the highest proportion of children up to age 4 attending an Early Childhood Development centre (48.1%); the highest proportion of literate adults (90.6%), and the highest proportion of adults with a degree or higher education qualification (8.0%).
Among the provinces which people are most keen to leave is the Eastern Cape, which had the highest net out-migration of all provinces between 2011 and 2016 of 326 171.
Poverty, measured in terms of the Food Poverty Line – the rand value below which individuals are unable to purchase or consume enough food – is highest in the Eastern Cape, at 41.4%. The Eastern Cape also has the biggest proportion of children who have lost both parents, the lowest number of households living in formal dwellings (69.8%) and the lowest number of households using electricity for heating (13.1%).
