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Cape Town - South Africa won’t realise its demographic benefit if the job prospects for younger working-age people don’t improve, said statistician general Pali Lehohla on Thursday.
A demographic dividend occurs when a country is entering a period in which the working age population has a low proportion of young dependents and enjoys good health, quality education and decent employment.
According to the mid-year population figures released by Statistics South Africa, the population grew by 1.62% from 2015 to 2016, with declining growth rates among young people between the age of 15 to 34 and increasing growth rates among those who are older than 60.
Black South African people constitute approximately 81% – or 45.11 million – of South Africa’s population, the coloured population at 4.9 million, whites are estimated at 4.52 million and the Asian population is estimated at 1.39 million.
South Africa’s fertility rate has declined from an average of 2.65 children per woman in 2002 to 2.43 in 2016.
Capitalising on the demographic dividend
The legacy of apartheid, Lehohla said, gave rise to the fact that the life circumstances of the first demographic dividend have not reached its full potential, due to high levels of unemployment and low-income levels of the majority of South Africans.
“South Africa needs to urgently invest in the second demographic dividend so that this grouping can achieve the outcomes their parents haven’t experienced,” he said.
In his presentation, Lehohla also pointed out that South Africa’s life expectancy of 62.4 years still fall short of the target age of 70 set in the National Development Plan.
“Life expectancy can only improve further provided the necessary social, health and economic policies are rejuvenated to take into account the changing needs of the population,” he said.
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