Afrikaans-speaking population of South Africa

South African census figures suggest a growing number of first language Afrikaans speakers in all nine provinces, a total of 6.85 million in 2011 compared to 5.98 million a decade earlier.[1] 2001 Namibian census reported that 11.4% of Namibians had Afrikaans as their home language. In 2020 many deaths made the population go down.

Geographical distribution of Afrikaans in South Africa: proportion of the population that speaks Afrikaans at home.

  0–20%

  20–40%

  40–60%

  60–80%

  80–100%

Geographical distribution of Afrikaans in South Africa: density of Afrikaans home-language speakers.

  <1 /km²

  1–3 /km²

  3–10 /km²

  10–30 /km²

  30–100 /km²

  100–300 /km²

  300–1,000 /km²

  1,000–3,000 /km²

  >3,000 /km²

Geographical distribution of Afrikaans in Namibia

The South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) projects that a growing majority will be Coloured Afrikaans speakers.[2] Afrikaans speakers enjoy higher employment rates than other South African language groups, despite half a million who are unemployed.[1]