According to the 2022 census, the population of South Africa is about 62 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions.

[9] Sources: Statesman's Year-Book 1967–1968;[10] Europa Year Book 1969[11] Bantustan demographics were removed from South African census data during Apartheid and for this reason official figures on the national population of the country during that period will be inaccurate.

[3] Between 1996 and 2022, the proportion of Afrikaans speakers declined from 14.5% to 10.6% and English held steady at 8.7%, whle isiZulu grew from 22.8% to 24.4%, and Xhosa declined from 17.9% to 16.3%[35] The country also recognises several unofficial languages, including Sekholokoe, Fanagalo, Khwe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi and San.

Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoikhoi people contain regional dialects stretching northwards into Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere.

These people, who are a physically distinct population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based on their hunter-gatherer societies.

They have been joined by black or white South African converts as well as immigrants from other parts of Africa.

[39][40] The Hindu population has its roots in the British colonial period, but later waves of immigration from India have also contributed to it.

Other minority religions in South Africa are Sikhism, Jainism, Baháʼí Faith and Judaism.

[41] 86.0% of black residents are Christian, 3.0% have no religion, 0.3% are Muslim, 0.0% are Jewish, 0.0% are Hindu, 9.5% Traditional African and 1.2% have other or undetermined beliefs (2022 Census).

note: widespread ongoing transmission of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is occurring throughout South Africa; as of 6 June 2022, South Africa has reported a total of 3,968,205 cases of COVID-19 or 6,690.7 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 101,317 cumulative deaths or a rate of 170.83 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 6 June 2022, 36.33% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine Definition: age 15 and over can read and write (2015 est.)

[43] Groups of refugees and asylum seekers numbering over 10,000 included people from Zimbabwe (48,400), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (24,800), and Somalia (12,900).

[43] These populations mainly lived in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth.

Statistics SA assumes in some of their calculations that there are fewer than 2 million immigrants in South Africa.

[44] Other institutions, like the police and Médecins Sans Frontières place estimate the figure at 4 million.