The Numbers: Verified South African Policy Statistics

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Work and income

Unemployment is the context behind almost every other pressure on this site.

33.6%

Official unemployment rate in the second quarter of 2026, up from 32.7%. For ages 15 to 34 the rate was 47.4%.

Official rateAges 15 to 34

View the data

Quarter	Official rate (%)	Ages 15 to 34 (%)
Q4 2024	31.9	Not shown
Q1 2025	32.9	Not shown
Q2 2025	33.2	Not shown
Q3 2025	31.9	Not shown
Q4 2025	31.4	43.8
Q1 2026	32.7	45.8
Q2 2026	33.6	47.4

Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q4 2024 to Q2 2026

Used in: The Silence Between Stats, Between Frustration and Fault, The Unanswered Call. The analyses keep the figures that were available on the day they were published.

46.3%

Composite labour underutilisation rate, which includes discouraged work-seekers and the underemployed. It was unchanged from the first quarter.

Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q2 2026

Used in: The Silence Between Stats. The analyses keep the figures that were available on the day they were published.

8.5M

People unemployed under the official definition, up 345,000 from the first quarter.

Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, Q2 2026

Education

Who can afford to study, and who falls through the gap.

68,446

Students estimated to be in the "missing middle": too well off for bursary funding, but unable to afford university fees.

Department of Higher Education and Training, briefing by Minister Nzimande, January 2024

Used in: Priced Out of the Promise.

Gender-based violence

Different measures that are often confused: intimate partner femicide, all killings of women, attitudes, and what happens to the evidence.

5.5

Intimate partner femicide per 100,000 women, against a global average of 1.2.

South Africa5.5

Global average1.2

View the data

Measure	Per 100,000 women
South Africa	5.5
Global average	1.2

South African Medical Research Council, Fourth National Femicide Study (2020 to 2021); UNODC (2021)

Used in: After the Shutdown, After the Laws, After the Declarations.

Women killed by an intimate partner every day in South Africa.

South African Medical Research Council, Fourth National Femicide Study (2020 to 2021)

Used in: After the Shutdown, After the Laws, After the Declarations.

5,578

Women killed between April 2023 and March 2024, about 107 a week.

South African Police Service crime statistics, 2023/24

Used in: Treated Men, Safer Women.

70%

Of men surveyed agreed that a wife should obey her husband.

Human Sciences Research Council, National GBV Study (2024)

Used in: After the Shutdown, After the Laws, After the Declarations.

140,000+

Criminal cases in the police DNA backlog in March 2025, according to Parliament's police committee.

Nov 2020117,738

Mar 2021172,787

Mar 2025140,000

View the data

Date	Cases in backlog
November 2020	117,738
March 2021	172,787
March 2025	More than 140,000

Portfolio Committee on Police chairperson, reported by IOL and the Cape Argus, March 2025

Used in: Unclaimed.

Mental health and suicide

The scale of the crisis, and who it falls on.

14,000

Estimated suicide deaths in South Africa each year.

Council for Medical Schemes (2024), based on a World Health Organization rate of 23.5 per 100,000

Used in: The Unanswered Call.

10,861

Estimated suicide deaths among men in 2019, against 2,913 among women, of 13,774 in total.

Men10,861

Women2,913

View the data

Group	Estimated suicide deaths, 2019
Men	10,861
Women	2,913
Total	13,774

World Health Organization, Global Health Estimates 2019 (published 2021)

Used in: Treated Men, Safer Women.

4×

Men's suicide rate, 37.6 per 100,000, is nearly four times the rate for women, 9.8 per 100,000.

Men37.6

Women9.8

View the data

Group	Suicides per 100,000
Men	37.6
Women	9.8

World Health Organization Global Health Estimates 2019, as reported by Africa Check

Used in: Treated Men, Safer Women.

Child welfare

What the state pays, what a child needs, and which children are counted.

R560

Monthly Child Support Grant, against a food poverty line of R796 a month.

Child Support GrantR560

Food poverty lineR796

View the data

Item	Rand per month
Child Support Grant	560
Food poverty line	796

SASSA (grant amount); Statistics South Africa (food poverty line)

28.8%

Of South African children under five are stunted: more than one in four.

UNICEF, WHO and World Bank Joint Child Malnutrition Estimates, 2025

Used in: Stunted.

R136bn to R202bn

Estimated annual economic cost of child stunting in South Africa.

Tshikululu Social Investments (2026)

Used in: Stunted.

90,000

Children living in about 50,000 child-headed households in 2015.

Statistics South Africa, General Household Survey 2015, as cited by the Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Used in: Nobody's Child.

3,214

Child-headed households identified and assisted through the Department of Social Development's register, in a count reported in 2016.

Department of Social Development, as reported by President Zuma (1 June 2016) and the Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Used in: Nobody's Child.

Housing and homelessness

The first national count of people without a home.

55,719

Homeless people counted in the 2022 census, more than four times the 13,135 counted in 1996.

199613,135

202255,719

View the data

Year	Homeless people counted
1996	13,135
2022	55,719

Statistics South Africa, A Profile of Homeless Persons in South Africa, 2022 (published 2025)

Used in: Seen, Not Sheltered.

54%

Of homeless people gave unemployment as the main reason for their homelessness.

Statistics South Africa, A Profile of Homeless Persons in South Africa, 2022 (published 2025)

Used in: Seen, Not Sheltered.

20.1%

Of counted homeless people were living in shelters. The other 79.9% were roofless.

Statistics South Africa, A Profile of Homeless Persons in South Africa, 2022 (published 2025)

Used in: Seen, Not Sheltered.

Reproductive health and population

How law, services and demographics are shifting.

91%

Fall in abortion-related maternal illness and death between 1997 and 2002, after the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act.

South African Family Practice Journal (2021), citing Jewkes and Rees (2005)

Used in: The Law Says Yes.

2.12

South Africa's total fertility rate in 2026, down from 2.21 in 2025. Replacement level is 2.1.

20252.21

20262.12

Replacement2.1

View the data

Measure	Births per woman
2025	2.21
2026	2.12
Replacement level	2.1

Statistics South Africa, Mid-Year Population Estimates 2025 and 2026

Used in: Fewer Children, Shifting Ground. The analyses keep the figures that were available on the day they were published.

0.72

South Korea's total fertility rate in 2023, down from 0.78 in 2022 and the lowest in the OECD.

Statistics Korea, announced 28 February 2024

Used in: Fewer Children, Shifting Ground.

How to read this page. Figures are shown as the source reports them, with the period they cover. Where a figure is derived (for example, a weekly rate worked out from an annual total), the description says so. Quarterly figures come from Statistics South Africa; other sources are named on each card. Read the full method.