South Africa’s economy grew by 1,3% in 2015, down from 1,5% in 2014 and 2,2% in 2013, according to preliminary estimates of real gross domestic product (GDP) published by Stats SA. Overall economic growth in 2015 was characterised by two of the main industry groups shrinking in size, while the other eight experienced some growth.   read more »

24 February 2016 Media Invite       Stats SA releases Gross domestic product (GDP), Q4  2015 The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, will release the Gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for the fourth quarter of 2015 at a media briefing to be held on Tuesday, 1 March 2016 in Pretoria. The media briefing will be   read more »

Media Release                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  26 February 2016 Education report focusing on the Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape has the second highest percentage of learners in the country that did not pay school fees (81%) in 2013 whereas Limpopo has the highest with 91,0%. This is significantly higher than the national average (62,4%).In 2013, 87,2% learners attended   read more »

Media Invite                                                                                                                                                                     19 February 2016   Stats SA releases the Non -Motorised transport report The Statistician-General of South Africa, Dr Pali Lehohla, will release a report on the Non- Motorised transport (NMT) report at a media briefing to be held on Thursday, 25 February 2016. This report is an in-depth analysis of the National Household   read more »

Much has been said about the importance of tourism, particularly of its role in economic growth, employment and attracting foreign exchange. The latest Tourism Satellite Account for South Africa report provides indicators of tourism’s role in these three spheres. Time series for much of the data are now available (10 years).   Tourism as a   read more »

The South African economy was hit hard by the global economic crisis of 2008/2009. The country’s manufacturing industry contracted sharply, and its subsequent recovery has been insufficient for the volume of manufacturing production to return to its pre-crisis level. Figure 1 shows SA’s manufacturing production (volume) compared with OECD industrial production.1 Preliminary manufacturing data for   read more »

A growing number of forecasts reveal that food prices might rise sharply in coming months. Survey data show which parts of the country are most vulnerable. Current data point to an agriculture industry that is struggling. During November 2015, in the midst of South Africa’s worst drought in 23 years, Stats SA released gross domestic   read more »

Data from Stats SA’s Annual financial statistics (AFS) report shows that the debt-to-equity ratio for the private sector as a whole has dropped since 2005. The debt-to-equity ratio is a measure of how much debt a company or industry has incurred to finance its operations relative to equity. Debt refers to how much an industry   read more »

The Statistician-General regrets to announce a delay in the release of the fourth quarter report of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey. The release, which was scheduled for Tuesday the 9th of February has been postponed to the 25th of February for the following reasons. The QLFS has run on a redesigned Master Sample for a   read more »

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), in collaboration with the South African Medical Research Council, will be conducting the South Africa Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS) in 2016 on behalf of the National Department of Health. The survey aims to provide a better understanding of the health status of the population in South Africa. Key topics   read more »