Census 2022 shows decrease in orphans in the country

South Africa’s Census 2022 national results has shown a decrease in the percentage of children aged 0-17 who are orphans in the country.

“KwaZulu-Natal observed the highest decrease in all orphanhood types from 2011 to 2022. Paternal orphans are highest in all censuses and provinces,” Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said.

The data from Census 2022, which Maluleke handed over to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday in Pretoria, indicates that information on parental survival is collected in order to determine maternal or paternal orphanhood, and estimation of adult mortality.

In 2011, the stats for paternal orphans were at 12.1% while in 2022 they were at 8.9%, maternal orphans stood at 3.0% in 2011 and in 2022 they were at 2.3%.  Double orphans were at 3.9% in 2011 and they decreased to 2.5% in 2022. In 2011, non orphans were at 81.0% and in 2022 the figure stood at 86.2%.

“Comparison of Census 2011 and census 2022 showed that in both censuses, paternal orphanhood was more prevalent compared to maternal and double orphanhood. Trends show that there has been a decrease in orphanhood and this is the case for all the three types,” he said.

Non orphans are children 0-17 aged years whose both biological mother and father were still alive while paternal orphans are children 0-17 aged years whose biological fathers were no longer alive but their mothers were still alive.

Maternal orphans refer to children aged 0-17 years whose biological mothers were no longer alive but their fathers were still alive and double orphans are children aged 0-17 years who reported that both mother and father have died.

“Provincial variations in orphanhood showed that Eastern Cape (15.8%) and KwaZulu-Natal (15.5%) had the highest percentage of paternal orphans in both Censuses 2011 and 2022. In census 2022, Eastern Cape (3.4%), Free State (3.1%), North West (2.9% and Mpumalanga (2.6%) provinces had percentage of double orphans above the national average (2.5%),” Maluleke said.

Agricultural households

Census 2022 shows that 13.8% (2 463 429) of all households are agricultural households compared to 19.9% in 2011 (2 879 590).

Most of the households were involved in agriculture to produce ‘only for own consumption’ (1 988 825 or 80.7%) and ‘mainly for own consumption with some sale’ (189 371 or 7.7%).

Approximately 4.3% or 107 112 of agricultural households were producing ‘only for sale’.

“The major provinces contributing to the decrease are KwaZulu-Natal (-167 726 agricultural households), Eastern Cape (-114 846 agricultural households) and Free State (-65 522 agricultural households).

“Most of the agricultural households were in KwaZulu-Natal (24.9%), Eastern Cape (20.7%) and Limpopo (16.3%) in 2011. In 2022, KwaZulu-Natal (22.3%) still reported the highest percentage of agricultural households.

“However, Limpopo (21.1%) overtook Eastern Cape (19.6%). Northern Cape and Western Cape reported the lowest percentage of agricultural households in both 2011 and 2022,” Maluleke said.

The trends in percentage contribution by various population groups to total agricultural households remained largely the same in the two years.

Black African households (91.4% in 2011 and 90.8% in 2022) constituted the largest percentage of agricultural households, followed by white households (5.2% in both 2011 and 2022) in both years.

“Livestock and poultry production was the leading agricultural activity, reported in 959 365 (38.9%) households, followed by fruit or vegetable production (661 613 or 26,9%) and grains, food crops and industrial crops (650 096 or 26.4%).

“Eastern Cape (247 902 or 25.8%) and KwaZulu-Natal (247 043 or 25.8%) reported the highest number of households involved in livestock and poultry production. The leading provinces in the production of grains, food crops and industrial crops were Limpopo (250 463 or 38.5%) and KwaZulu-Natal (126 727 or 19.5%),” he said.

The main place used for household agricultural activity in 2022 was backyard (2 196 736 or 89.2%), followed by farm land (131 105 or 5.3%)

‘Other’, which includes schools and other public spaces, was reported by 51 007 households, and constituted the least reported place of agricultural activity.

“With the exception of chickens, Eastern Cape reported the highest numbers in all types of livestock ownership. Nationally, chickens (38.2 million) were the most numerous type of livestock kept at household level, followed by sheep (17.7 million) and cattle (12.3 million).

“The black African and white population groups were the most dominant in livestock and chicken farming. The highest number of cattle (7.7 million) and sheep (12.5 million) were reported in white-headed households, whereas most chickens (19.0 million), goats (4.9 million) and pigs (1.1 million) were reported in black African households,” Maluleke said. – SAnews.gov.za