White South Africans

White South Africans
Wit Suid-Afrikaners
Proportion of White South Africans in each municipality according to the census
Total population
Decrease 4,504,252 (2022 census)[1]
Decrease 7.27% of South Africa's population
Regions with significant populations
Throughout South Africa, but mostly concentrated in urban areas. Population by provinces, as of the 2022 census:
Gauteng1,509,800
Western Cape1,217,807
KwaZulu-Natal513,377
Eastern Cape403,061
Free State235,915
Mpumalanga185,731
North West171,887
Limpopo167,524
Northern Cape99,150
Languages
Afrikaans (57.9%) · English (40.2%)[citation needed]
Religion
Majority: Christianity (85.6%)
Minority: Irreligion (8.9%) · Other (4.6%)[citation needed]
Related ethnic groups
White Zimbabweans, White Namibians, Afrikaners, French Huguenots, Germans, Coloureds, British diaspora in Africa, South African diaspora, other White Africans

White South Africans are South Africans of European descent. In linguistic, cultural, and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original colonists, known as Afrikaners, and the Anglophone descendants of predominantly British colonists of South Africa. In 2016, 57.9% were native Afrikaans speakers, 40.2% were native English speakers, and 1.9% spoke another language as their mother tongue,[2][3] such as Portuguese, Greek, or German. White South Africans are by far the largest population of White Africans. White was a legally defined racial classification during apartheid.[4]

Most Afrikaners trace their ancestry back to colonists in the mid-17th century and have developed a separate cultural identity, including a distinct language. These colonists included Huguenots who emigrated from France (see Huguenots in South Africa) and Walloons who emigrated from present-day Belgium.

The majority of English-speaking White South Africans trace their ancestry to the 1820 British and Dutch colonists. The remainder of the White South African population consists of later immigrants from Lebanon, and Europe such as Greeks and Norwegians. Portuguese immigrants arrived after the collapse of the Portuguese colonial administrations in Angola and Mozambique, although many also originate from Madeira.[5][6][7]

  1. ^ "Census 2022: Statistical Release" (PDF). statssa.gov.za. 10 October 2023. p. 6. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  2. ^ "South Africa – Community Survey 2016". www.datafirst.uct.ac.za. Retrieved 25 November 2018.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference cib2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Posel, Deborah (2001). "What's in a name? Racial categorisations under apartheid and their afterlife" (PDF). Transformation: 50–74. ISSN 0258-7696. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 November 2006.
  5. ^ Leonard, Thomas M. (18 October 2013). Encyclopedia of the Developing World. Routledge. p. 1707. ISBN 9781135205157.
  6. ^ Gertz, Genie; Boudreault, Patrick (5 January 2016). The SAGE Deaf Studies Encyclopedia. SAGE Publications. p. 242. ISBN 9781483346472.
  7. ^ Shimoni, Gideon (2003). Community and Conscience: The Jews in Apartheid South Africa. ISBN 9781584653295.