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CountryAtlas

South Africa

Republic of South Africa

Capital
Pretoria
Region
Sub-Saharan Africa
Income group
Upper middle income
Population
64.7M (2025)
Area
1,221,037 km²
Currency
South African rand (ZAR)
Data refreshed 11 Sep 2026Updated 7 h ago94 % coverage · 236 indicators
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At a glance

Twelve headline indicators, latest available year.

Population
24th of 218 · 5th in Sub-Saharan Africa
GDP
40th of 187 · 1st in Sub-Saharan Africa
GDP per capita
105th of 187 · 6th in Sub-Saharan Africa
GDP growth
155th of 187 · 42nd in Sub-Saharan Africa
Inflation
92nd of 177 · 17th in Sub-Saharan Africa
Unemployment
184th of 185 · 44th in Sub-Saharan Africa
Life expectancy
183rd of 217 · 19th in Sub-Saharan Africa
Median age
126th of 216 · 3rd in Sub-Saharan Africa
Gross debt / GDP
75th of 94 · 18th in Sub-Saharan Africa
CO₂ per capita
172nd of 212 · 48th in Sub-Saharan Africa
Renewable electricity
75th of 90 · 4th in Sub-Saharan Africa
Internet users
102nd of 182 · 2nd in Sub-Saharan Africa

What changed in South Africa

Statistically notable movements in the latest data.

No notable changes detected in the latest snapshot.

Countries similar to South Africa

Nearest peers by standardised distance on the selected dimension.

Not enough data to compute peers.

Country DNA

Percentile rank among all countries on nine dimensions. Descriptive, not a score.

DNA not available for this country yet.

Key facts

Computed from the data — no model-generated numbers.

No verified insights yet.

Borders: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Zimbabwe

Languages: Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Southern Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

Timeline

Records, reversals and turning points across the whole history.

No events detected.

Explore South Africa by topic

19 topics · 270 indicators with data.