South African Census 2022
10% Sample

South Africa, 2022

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-census-2022-v1

DOI

https://doi.org/10.25828/efbb-k295

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Population Censuses and Surveys

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Sep 16, 2024

Last modified

May 04, 2026

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71455

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Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-census-2022-v1

Title

South African Census 2022

Subtitle

10% Sample

Abbreviation or Acronym

SA Census 2022

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Population and Housing Census

Abstract

Censuses are principal means of collecting basic population and housing statistics required for social and economic development, and policy interventions and their implementation and evaluation. The Post-Apartheid South African government has conducted four Censuses, in 1996, 2001, 2011, and 2022.

Kind of Data

Census/enumeration data

Unit of Analysis

Households and individuals

Version

Version Description

v1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2022

Version Notes

Version 1 of the South African Census 2022 10% sample dataset was downloaded by DataFirst from Statistics South Africa in September 2024

Scope

Notes

The South African Census 2022 dealt with the following topics:
Household characteristics, including dwelling type, home ownership, household assets, access to services, energy sources and food security;
Individuals' characteristics, including demographics (age, population group, language, religion, citizenship), migration, general health and functioning (disability), parental survival (mortality) and education;
Geography, including province, district municipality, local municipality and geographic type (urban/rural).

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The South African Census 2022 had national coverage.

Geographic Unit

The lowest level of geographic aggregation covered by the data is local municipality. Data at enumeration area is not released. A Small Area Layer (SAL) of geography has been created by Stats SA to fulfil researchers' need for data at more detailed geographic levels. The SAL data is only available on request directly from StatsSA. The small area is made up of one or more EA's provided they conform to certain criteria such as population thresholds, area size, geographical constraints, and land use type. For example, in formal areas the population of the small area must be over 300. Enumeration Areas have been combined with neighbouring EAs with the same characteristics to make up these numbers. When the SALs are mapped blank spaces will appear which represent EAs that did not meet the criteria of having the same characteristics as surrounding EAs.

Universe

The South African Census 2022 covered every person present in South Africa on the Census reference night, midnight of 2-3 February 2022 including all de jure household members and residents of institutions.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

Census 2022 10% sample microdata were sampled from the 2022 census data based on prescribed business requirements to ensure the generated estimates match the census population counts at local municipal level by age, sex, and population group. The Census 2022 Household record file and Person record file were used as a basis for the creation of the household and person sampling frame, respectively. Households and household members in the in-scope households (records of the household questionnaire) formed part of the 10% sample. The municipal sample sizes for households were determined by taking 10% of the respective municipal measure of sizes. The household frame was implicitly stratified within each local municipality using household characteristics. Systematic samples of households were selected in each local municipality from the implicitly sorted household frame. The procedure used the allocated sample within each local municipality to produce the sample of households as well as the sampling weights, which are the inverse of the inclusion probabilities.

A Post-enumeration Survey (PES) is an independent sample survey that is conducted immediately after the completion of census enumeration to evaluate the coverage and content errors of the census. A sample of 840 sub-enumeration areas was selected across South Africa's nine provinces for the PES sampling frame. A mixed-mode data collection methodology was implemented to counteract the effects of the COVID19 pandemic. This was made possible by having integrated, digitally enabled survey processes with a geo-spatial information frame as a base.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

One questionnaire was used to capture the Census 2022 which included information on:
1. Households - particulars of the household (cover page of the household questionnaire) and household information sections of the household questionnaire.
2. Persons - particulars of the household member and person information sections of the household questionnaire.
3. Geography - geographic information associated with households and persons

A Post-Enumeration Survey was carried out after the census, which used a PES questionnaire.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2022-02-02	2022-02-03

Data Collection Mode

Face-to-Face and Computer Assisted Personal and Telephone Interview

Data Collection Notes

Because the COVID-19 pandemic affected key phases of geography frame finalisation and data collection of the census, a multi-mode data collection approach was adopted. Three methods of data collection were used in this census, namely:
1. Face to face interviews- Computer-assisted Personal Interview (CAPI);
2. Telephonic interviews -Computer-assisted Telephone Interview (CATI); and
3. Computer-assisted Web Interview (CAWI).

Quality standards

Other quality statement

Census 2022 data collected with the sections of the questionnaire documented below have not been released by Statistics SA because reporting and coverage biases makes the data unreliable:
Section F: Income
Section G: Employment
Section H: Fertility
Section I: Housing, Household Goods and Household Services
Section J: Agricultural Activities and Food Security
Section K: Mortality in the last 12 months
DataFirst has provided a spreadsheet listing the excluded variables which can be downloaded from the Census 2022 10% sample dataset webpage.

Data appraisal

Estimates of Sampling Error

Coverage errors are a measure of how many persons or households were missed or counted more than once in the census.
The final net coverage error rate relative to the final true population of 61,4 million persons is thus 31,1%. The final net coverage error rate relative to the final true population of 19,3 million households is 30,5%.

Content errors indicate the quality of key characteristics in the census.
With respect to content errors, six variables were tested for consistency in terms of the responses that were recorded in the Census and the PES. The aggregated index of inconsistency was 7,5% for population group, 8,2% for sex, and 13,6% for age group, indicating a high level of agreement. The aggregated index of inconsistency for marital status was 23,0%, relationship to head of household was 34,8%, and country of birth was 42,3%, indicating moderate rates of agreement.

access_policy

Access authority

Name	Affiliation	URL	Email
DataFirst	University of Cape Town		support@data1st.org

Confidentiality

Is signing of a confidentiality declaration required?	Confidentiality declaration text
true	The data re-user agrees to make no attempt to re-identify data subjects from the data

Access conditions

Public access data for use under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (Attribution-only) license

Citation requirements

Statistics South Africa. South African Census 2022, 10% sample [dataset]. Version 1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2024. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/efbb-k295

Deposit requirements

The data re-user agrees to send DataFirst a link to research publications that are based on the data

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	Metadata producer

Date of Metadata Production

2024-09-18

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 3

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South African Census 2022 10% Sample