List of South African provinces by population
Since the election of 27 April 1994, South Africa has been divided into nine provinces. They vary widely in population, from the mostly-urban Gauteng, which contains over 20% of the national population, to the mostly-desert Northern Cape, which contains less than 3%.

List of South African provinces by population

Section Title:
Table Section Text: Since the election of 27 April 1994, South Africa has been divided into nine provinces. They vary widely in population, from the mostly-urban Gauteng, which contains over 20% of the national population, to the mostly-desert Northern Cape, which contains less than 3%.

Rank	Province	2011 census	2015 mid-year estimate	2018 mid-year estimate

Population	Percentage	Population	Percentage	Population	Percentage

1	Gauteng	12,272,263	23.7	13,200,300	24.0	14,717,000	25.5

2	KwaZulu-Natal	10,267,300	19.8	10,919,100	19.9	11,384,700	19.7

3	Western Cape	5,822,734	11.2	6,200,100	11.3	6,621,100	11.5

4	Eastern Cape	6,562,053	12.7	6,916,200	12.6	6,522,700	11.3

5	Limpopo	5,404,868	10.4	5,726,800	10.4	5,797,300	10.0

6	Mpumalanga	4,039,939	7.8	4,283,900	7.8	4,523,900	7.8

7	North West	3,509,953	6.8	3,707,100	6.7	3,979,000	6.9

8	Free State	2,745,590	5.3	2,817,900	5.1	2,954,300	5.1

9	Northern Cape	1,145,861	2.2	1,185,600	2.2	1,225,600	2.1

South Africa	51,770,561	100.0	54,956,900	100.0	57,725,600	100.0

Sentence(s)

Western Cape is the third most populous province, with an estimated 6.6 million inhabitants in 2018.

final_sentence: Western Cape is the third most populous province, with an estimated 6.6 million inhabitants in 2018.