White South African - Current Trends

Current Trends

In recent decades there has been a steady proportional (and possibly also numerical) decline in the white African population, due to higher birthrates among the non-white population of South Africa, as well as high emigration. In 1977, there were 4.3 million whites, constituting 16.4% of the population at the time.

More recently, the improved counting of the majority black African population has contributed to a sharp decline since 1994. In 1994, upon the abolition of apartheid, white Africans comprised 13.6% of the population, compared to 9.1% in January 2010. According to some previous census data, the highest proportion of white people in South Africa occurred around 1911-41, when they made up between 19-21% of the population. It is estimated that at least 800,000 white Africans have moved abroad since 1995.

Like many other communities strongly affiliated with the West and Europe's colonial legacy in Africa, the white Africans are often economically better off than their black African neighbors and have only relatively recently surrendered political dominance to majority rule. There were also some white Africans in South Africa who lived in poverty—especially during the 1930s and increasingly since the end of minority rule. Current estimates of white poverty in South Africa run as high as 12%.

The new phenomenon of white poverty is often blamed on the government's affirmative action employment legislation, which reserves 80% of new jobs for black people and favours companies owned by black people (see Black Economic Empowerment). In 2010, Reuters stated that 450,000 whites live below the poverty line according to Solidarity and civil organisations, with some research saying that up to 150,000 are struggling for survival. Due to financial reasons, Afrikaner women are increasingly resorting to prostitution.

The Anglo-African population has a high relative turnover rate; not just of emigration, but immigration as well: By 2005, an estimated 212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000. Some white South Africans living in predominantly wealthy white suburbs, such as Sandton, have been affected by the 2008 13.5% rise in house robberies and associated crime. In a study, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Dr. Johan Burger, said that criminals were specifically targeting "richer" suburbs. Burger revealed that several affluent suburbs are surrounded by poorer residential areas and that inhabitants in the latter often target inhabitants in the former. Burger also related to an entitlement complex that criminals have; "They feel they are entitled, for their own sakes, to take from those who have a lot". The report also found that residents in wealthy suburbs in Gauteng were not only at more risk of being targeted but also faced an inflated chance of being murdered during the robbery.

The current global financial crisis has slowed down the high rates of white people emigrating overseas and has led to increasing numbers of white emigrants returning to live in South Africa. Charles Luyckx, CEO of Elliot International and a board member of the Professional Movers Association said that in the past six months leading to December (2008), emigration numbers had dropped by 10%. Meanwhile he revealed that "people imports" had increased by 50%.

Despite the decline, between 2009 and 2010, not only did the number of white South Africans increase by 112,000, but even their percentage increased from 9.1 to 9.2%. This made them the fastest growing ethnic group in that period of time, with a growth rate of 2.5%, far higher than the 1.4% for black South Africans.