There has been significant growth in multi-racial households in South Africa over the past 20 years.

This is according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), which analysed census results from between 2001 and 2022.

The proportion of multiracial households grew from 1.3% in 2001, growing slightly to 1.7% in 2011, but rose significantly to 11.4% in 2022.

Stats SA defines a multiracial household as one where “two or more persons from different population groups (black African, white, coloured, Indian/Asian, and other) living together as one household”.

The chart below shows the growth in the proportion of multiracial households in the nine provinces and South Africa.

The provinces with the highest proportion of multiracial households were the Western Cape, where 17.0% of households were multiracial, and Gauteng, with 14.6% of households being multiracial. The province with the lowest proportion of multiracial households was Limpopo, where 6.7% of households were multiracial.

While the Western Cape had the highest proportion of multiracial households, Johannesburg had the highest total share of multiracial households in the country.

Of all multiracial households in South Africa, 17.4% were in Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town, where 14.4% of all South Africa’s multiracial households were found. In total, 58.7% of all multiracial households were found in South Africa’s eight metros.

The chart below shows the share of multiracial households that each metro has.

According to Stats SA, the “rise of multiracial households between 2001 and 2022 illustrates how South Africa’s rich and diverse heritage has increasingly found expression within homes and families, reflecting the social transformation that has accompanied democracy”.

Taken together, the data point to a significant shift in the social composition of South African households. Multiracial households remain a minority nationally, but their rapid growth suggests that South Africans from different racial backgrounds are increasingly sharing homes and building families together.