Pretoria - Demographics

Demographics

Depending on the extent of the area understood to constitute "Pretoria", the population ranges from 500,000 to 2.5 million. The main languages spoken in the Tshwane municipality are Pedi, Afrikaans, Tswana, Tsonga, Zulu and English. Ndebele and Sotho are also widely spoken. The whole Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality had a population of 1,985,997 at the 2001 census. The city of Pretoria has the largest white population of anywhere on the African continent. Since its founding it has been a major Afrikaner population centre, and currently there are roughly 400,000 Afrikaners living in or around the city.

Even since the end of Apartheid, Pretoria itself still has a white majority, albeit an ever increasing black middle-class. However in the townships of Soshanguve and Atteridgeville blacks make up close to all of the population. The largest white ethnic group are the Afrikaners and the largest black ethnic group are the Northern Sothos.

If one considers the lower estimate for the population of Pretoria, this includes largely former-white designated areas and there is therefore a white majority. However if one includes the geographically separate townships, this increases Pretoria's population beyond a million and makes whites a minority.

Pretoria's Indians mostly live in the Indian township of Laudium and surrounding areas, or in white suburbs.

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