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SA Geography South Africa has nine provinces, each with its own legislature, premier and executive council - and distinctive landscape, population, economy and climate. They are: * The Eastern Cape * The Free State * Gauteng * KwaZulu-Natal * Limpopo * Mpumalanga * The Northern Cape * North West * The Western Cape Under South Africa's new democratic constitution the four provinces were broken up into the current nine, and the "homelands" blinked out of existence. The Cape became the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and the western half of North West, while the Transvaal became Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and the eastern half of North West. Natal was renamed KwaZulu-Natal, incorporating
the "homeland" of KwaZulu, and the Orange Free State became
simply the Free State. There are vast differences in the size of the provinces, from tiny and crowded Gauteng to the vast, arid and empty Northern Cape. Mpumalanga is the second-smallest province after Gauteng, with the rest all taking between 8% and 14% of South Africa's total land area: * Eastern Cape - 168 966 square kilometres * Free State - 129 825 square kilometres * Gauteng - 16 548 square kilometres * KwaZulu-Natal - 94 361 square kilometres * Limpopo - 125 755 square kilometres * Mpumalanga - 76 495 square kilometres * Northern Cape - 372 889 square kilometres * North West - 106 512 square kilometres * Western Cape - 129 462 square kilometres Land area by province * South Africa's geography Population The number of people living in the provinces also varies considerably. KwaZulu-Natal, the third-smallest province, has the largest population, and tiny Gauteng the second-largest. By contrast the Northern Cape, which takes up nearly a third of South Africa's land area, has by far the smallest population. The population estimates for all nine provinces are: * Eastern Cape - 6.9-million * Free State - 2.9-million * Gauteng - 9.5-million * KwaZulu-Natal - 9.9-million * Limpopo - 5.6-million * Mpumalanga - 3.5-million * Northern Cape - 1-million * North West - 3.4-million * Western Cape - 4.7-million Population by province This variation translates into huge differences
in population density. Gauteng has an average of 576 people per square
kilometre, while the Northern Cape is extremely roomy, with only three
people for each square kilometre. Languages Although English is the lingua franca of South Africa, there's considerable variation in home languages between the provinces. IsiXhosa, for instance, is spoken by more than 80% of people in the Eastern Cape, while almost 80% of those in KwaZulu-Natal speak isiZulu. IsiZulu is also the most common home language in Gauteng, but at a much smaller percentage. In Cape Town and its surrounds, Afrikaans comes into its own. Predominant languages by province are: * Eastern Cape - isiXhosa (83%), Afrikaans (9%) * Free State - Sesotho (64%), Afrikaans (12%) * Gauteng - isiZulu (21%), Afrikaans (14%), Sesotho (13%), English (12%) * KwaZulu-Natal - isiZulu (81%), English (13%) * Limpopo - Sepedi (52%), Xitsonga (22%), Tshivenda (16%) * Mpumalanga - siSwati (31%), isiZulu (26%), isiNdebele (12%) * Northern Cape - Afrikaans (68%), Setswana (21%) * North West - Setswana (65%), Afrikaans (7%) * Western Cape - Afrikaans (55%), English (19%), isiXhosa (23%)
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