South Africa's census shows 1 in 10 homes now multiracial

More than one in 10 South African households now includes people from different racial groups living together as one family, according to the latest census figures from Statistics South Africa, a share that has grown almost ninefold in just over two decades.

For ordinary citizens, the numbers describe a lived reality. The people they share kitchens, incomes and daily routines with increasingly come from different population groups. In 2001, such households made up just 1.3% of all homes. By 2011 the figure had crept to 1.7%. The real shift came in the decade between the last two censuses, when the proportion jumped to 11.4% in 2022.

Statistics South Africa defines a multi-racial household as one in which two or more people from different population groups live together. Those groups include black African, white, coloured, Indian or Asian, and other population groups.

The agency frames the change as a matter of public significance rather than private curiosity. “The rise of multi-racial 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,” it says.

Behind the headline figure lies a changing way of life. Statistics South Africa attributes the trend to intermarriage, migration, urbanisation and greater social mobility, forces that have reshaped how South Africans form families and where they choose to build them.

Where people live matters. The Western Cape leads the country, with multi-racial households accounting for almost one in five homes in the province. Gauteng follows, while Limpopo records the lowest proportion. The agency notes this partly reflects the racial make-up of individual provinces, since such households are more common where populations are more diverse.

Urbanisation is a clear thread through the data. In each of the three censuses studied, more than four in five multi-racial households were located in urban areas. Johannesburg and Cape Town stand out among the country’s metros. Yet the pattern is no longer confined to the big cities. The share of multi-racial households outside urban areas has grown from about 15% in 2001 to more than 18% in 2022, and roughly two in five are now found in non-metropolitan municipalities.

The internal shape of these homes has changed just as much. In 2001, large households were the norm, with almost three in 10 multi-racial households containing six or more people. By 2022, fewer than one in 25 did. Three-person households have become dominant: fewer than one in five fit that description in 2001, compared with almost half by 2022. Two-person households have also become considerably more common, while the proportion with five people has fallen sharply.

“In terms of living arrangements and culture in general, South African society continues to adopt new ways of living, including mixed-race household formation, and these emerging social interaction patterns have an impact on household size,” the agency says.

For Statistics South Africa, the deeper meaning lies in what the numbers say about freedom in everyday life. “The rise of multi-racial households in South Africa is a direct reflection of democratic freedom in several aspects of life,” it says.

The agency links the increase to greater cultural integration through urbanisation, migration and education, as well as the freedom to marry, cohabit and form families across racial lines. In its view, the changing composition of households shows how broader social transformation has reached into family and community life, the spaces where citizens actually live it.

Two decades ago, households made up of South Africans from different racial groups were comparatively rare. Today they are a visible and growing part of the national fabric, one census at a time. The question the next census may answer is whether the trend, now spreading beyond the metros, continues to deepen in the country’s smaller towns and rural areas.