Capital City Pretoria; Note - Cape Town is the legislative
center and Bloemfontein the judicial center.
Languages 11 official languages, including Afrikaans,
English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana,
Venda, Xhosa, Zulu.
Official Currency Rand (ZAR).
Ethnic Groups Black 75.2%, white 13.6%, Colored 8.6%,
Indian 2.6%.
Religions Christian 68% (includes most whites and
Coloreds, about 60% of blacks and about 40% of Indians),
Muslim 2%, Hindu 1.5% (60% of Indians), indigenous beliefs
and animist 28.5%.
Population 43,647,658. Note: South Africa took a
census October 1996 that showed a population of 40,583,611
(after an official adjustment for a 6.8% underenumeration
based on a postenumeration survey); estimates for this
country explicitly take into account the effects of
excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates,
lower population and growth rates, and changes in the
distribution of population by age and sex than would
otherwise be expected (July 2002 est.)
