Census 2022: 37.6% of population completed matric

Census 2022 shows that 37.6% of the population completed matric, with 73.4% between the ages of 5 and 24 attending an educational institution. Limpopo was the province with the highest attendance rate at almost 81%, while the Western Cape had the lowest at 67%.

A total of 3 024 593 children under the age of four participated in early childhood development (ECD) programmes, with most of these children attending at crèches or educare centres and pre-schools, nursery schools, grade 00, grade 000 and grade R.

Per province, the data shows that children in the Northern Cape and North West were more likely not to participate in ECD programmes compared to other provinces. In contrast, seven out of ten black African children attended an ECD programme compared to eight out of ten white children.

The data also shows that the use of day mothers, gogos and childminders for childcare was high among the Indian or Asian population compared to other population groups, while participation in home or community playgroups was highest amongst coloured children.

An analysis of the data for people between the ages of five and 24 also shows that the overall percentage of individuals attending an educational institution increased by three percentage points between 1996 (70,1%) and 2022 (73,4%).

Attendance increased to an almost universal level between 1996 and 2022 for children aged five and six, while the attendance rate started declining between the ages of 15 and 24. More black Africans, coloured and whites also attended school, while Indians or Asians showed little change.

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Notable increase in children competing high school, census shows

There was a noteworthy increase in the number of people who completed their secondary school education (16.3% in 1996 to 37.6% in 2022) and post-school education (7.1% in 1996 to 12.2% in 2022).

In 2011 and 2022, business, economics and management sciences and education were dominated by females, while males continued to dominate in engineering and electrical infrastructure studies.

In 2022, approximately 14.5 million individuals between the ages of five and 24 attended school and the data indicates that 50.3% were male and 49.7% female. There was an increase in the number of children attending school, with attendance peaking among children between the ages of 11 and 13.

Attendance was almost consistently evenly distributed by gender, except among 17 to 20-year-olds, where fewer females were likely to attend although more females compared to males attended school in the age group between 21 and 24 years old.

An analysis of people older than twenty showed that the number of people with no formal education decreased from 19.1% in 1996 to 6.9% in 2022, while the number of people in this age group with some primary education decreased from 16.6% in 1996 to 7.4% in 2022.

The data shows that 2 576 011 (6.9%) in the group older than 20 had no schooling, while 2 778 297 (7.4%) had some primary schooling, 1 317 726 (3.5%) completed primary school, 11 880 302 (31.6%) had some high school education, 14 122 681 (37.6%) completed matric, 4 602 765 (12.2%) had higher education and 300 207 (0.8%) were counted as ‘other’.