Projection of South African demographic situation and status of economic growth

Ayan Rudra, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

South Africa is in the process of undergoing age structure transition. Comparing with 2001 population of South Africa it is increasing significantly from 44 million to 60 million in 2040. As this working population is called as demographic bonus, which will give very positive impact to the South African economy. So this demographic dividend represents a potential boost to per capita incomes that countries can only access in the presence of a supportive policy context. This paper tries to find how much change will occur in near future in terms of demographic context in South Africa and how demographic dividend or labor force accelerate South African economic structure. This paper searches that labor force which is 15 to 64 years population increases. After 2035 the 15-49 years of population going to decrease, but 15-49 years of population increase. This indicates the extreme aging Population will highly increase in 2040 decade.