While a majority of households in South Africa are single-race households, there has been substantial and consistent upward trend in multiracial households, from 1.3% in 2001 to 11.4% in 2022.
This is according to the Stats SA’s _Cultural Dynamics in South Africa_ report published last week.
Stats SA says the latest report provides insights into culture aspects measured in post democracy South African censuses, including language, population group, religion and marriage.
The report said race was a poignant and controversial issue in South Africa and had a long and painful history. Historically, race groups were prohibited to marry or have sexual relations with other races due to the laws introduced by the apartheid government.
These laws played a role in creating distinct family and household relations. As a result, individuals could not easily form interracial relations leading to family and household formation due to fear of being prosecuted.
Stats SA said its findings to a greater extent showed that South Africans had begun to embrace each other regardless of their race.
For the purposes of the report, multiracial households are defined as households with two or more people who are of different population groups (black African, white, coloured, Indian/Asian, and other) living together as one household.
Censuses 2001 and 2011 indicated that multiracial households were more prevalent in the Northern Cape followed by Western Cape, while Census 2022 showed a slightly different pattern. It showed multiracial households more prominent in the Western Cape with 17% followed by Gauteng with 14.6% and Northern Cape 10.6%.
Limpopo recorded the least prevalence with 0.3% in 2001 and 6.7% in 2022.
Census 2022 showed that the City of Johannesburg had the highest proportion (29.7%) of multiracial households in the metros followed by City of Cape Town, with a quarter (24.5%) of households being multiracial. Metros with the least multiracial households were Mangaung (1.4%) and Nelson Mandela Bay (1.6%).
Results showed that multiracial households were more prevalent in urban areas and this was the case in all the three census years.
Though multiracial households were more prevalent in urban areas, non-urban areas experienced an increase of about three percentage points in mixed race households (from 14.9% 2001 to 18.2% in 2022). Stats SA said literature suggested the increase in cultural diversity was due to migration.
“An increase in multiracial households in non-urban areas in South Africa suggests that racial and ethnic diversity is no longer confined to big cities, it also shows that South Africa has undergone social transformation including cultural shifts in living arrangements across the country.”