Provinces of South Africa

Provinces of South Africa
Provinces of South Africa
	North West Northern Cape Gauteng Limpopo Mpumalanga Free State KwaZulu-Natal Eastern Cape Western Cape
Category	Regional state
Location	South Africa
Created	27 April 1994
Number	9 Provinces
Populations	1,355,946 (Northern Cape) – 15,099,422 (Gauteng)
Areas	18,178 km2 (7,019 sq mi) (Gauteng) – 372,889 km2 (143,973 sq mi) (Northern Cape)
Government	Provincial government; National government;
Subdivisions	Districts ; Metropolitan municipality

South Africa has nine provinces.^[1]

Just before the 1994 general election, the number of provinces went up from four to nine, because all the Bantustans became provinces.

Provinces have their own government, led by a Premier.

List

Province	Name in the most spoken native language^[2]	Capital	Largest city	Area^[3]^: 9	Population (2022)^[4]	Density (2022)
Eastern Cape	iMpuma-Koloni (Xhosa)	Bhisho (Bisho)	Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth)	168,966 km² (65,238 sq mi)	7,230,204	42.8/km² (111/sq mi)
Free State	Freistata (Sotho)	Bloemfontein	Bloemfontein	129,825 km² (50,126 sq mi)	2,964,412	22.8/km² (59/sq mi)
Gauteng	eGoli (Zulu)	Johannesburg	Johannesburg	18,178 km² (7,019 sq mi)	15,099,422	830.6/km² (2,151/sq mi)
KwaZulu-Natal	iKwaZulu-Natali (Zulu)	Pietermaritzburg^{[n 1]}	Durban	94,361 km² (36,433 sq mi)	12,423,907	131.7/km² (341/sq mi)
Limpopo	Limpopo (Pedi)	Polokwane (Pietersburg)	Polokwane	125,754 km² (48,554 sq mi)	6,572,720	52.3/km² (135/sq mi)
Mpumalanga	iMpumalanga (Swazi)	Mbombela (Nelspruit)	Mbombela	76,495 km² (29,535 sq mi)	5,143,324	67.2/km² (174/sq mi)
North West	Bokone Bophirima (Tswana)	Mahikeng (Mafikeng)	Rustenburg	104,882 km² (40,495 sq mi)	3,804,548	36.3/km² (94/sq mi)
Northern Cape	Noord-Kaap (Afrikaans)	Kimberley	Kimberley	372,889 km² (143,973 sq mi)	1,355,946	3.6/km² (9.3/sq mi)
Western Cape^{[n 2]}	Wes-Kaap (Afrikaans)	Cape Town	Cape Town	129,462 km² (49,986 sq mi)	7,433,019	57.4/km² (149/sq mi)
Republic of South Africa	iRiphabhuliki yaseNingizimu Afrika (Zulu)	Pretoria, Bloemfontein Cape Town^{[n 3]}^[5]	Johannesburg	1,220,813 km² (471,359 sq mi)	62,027,503	50.8/km² (132/sq mi)

Footnotes:

↑ Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were joint capitals of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 2004.
↑ These statistics do not include the Prince Edward Islands (335 km² or 129 sq mi, with no permanent residents), which are South African territories in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean but part of the Western Cape for legal and electoral purposes.
↑ Parliament sits in Cape Town, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and the Executive branch in Pretoria.

Province	HASC	ISO	FIPS	CSS	Conventional
Eastern Cape	ZA.EC	EC	SF05	02	EC
Free State	ZA.FS	FS	SF03	04	FS
Gauteng	ZA.GT	GP	SF06	07	GP
KwaZulu-Natal	ZA.NL	KZN	SF02	05	KZN
Limpopo	ZA.NP	LP	SF09	09	LP
Mpumalanga	ZA.MP	MP	SF07	08	MP
Northern Cape	ZA.NC	NC	SF08	03	NC
North-West	ZA.NW	NW	SF10	06	NW
Western Cape	ZA.WC	WC	SF11	01	WC
Notes HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes ISO: Province codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "ZA-" to the code FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10–4, a U.S. government standard. CSS: Province codes used by the Central Statistical Service of South Africa. ^[6]

Province	Capital	Peak population	Location
Cape of Good Hope (1910–1994)	Cape Town	6,125,335
Natal (1910–1994)	Pietermaritzburg	2,430,753
Orange Free State (1910–1994)	Bloemfontein	2,193,062
Transvaal (1910–1994)	Pretoria	9,491,265
Homelands	Capital	Peak population	Location
Bophuthatswana (1977–1994) †	Mmabatho	1,478,950
Ciskei (1972–1994) †	Bisho	677,920
Gazankulu (1971–1994)	Giyani	954,771
KaNgwane (1981–1994)	Louieville Schoemansdal (de facto)	779,240
KwaNdebele (1981–1994)	KwaMhlanga	404,246
KwaZulu (1981–1994)	Nongoma (until 1980) Ulundi (1980–1994)	5,524,774
Lebowa (1972–1994)	Lebowakgomo	2,740,587
QwaQwa (1974–1994)	Phuthaditjhaba	342,886
Transkei (1976–1994) †	Umtata	2,323,650
Venda (1979–1994) †	Thohoyandou	558,797
Mandates	Capital	Peak population
South West Africa	Windhoek	1,415,000