South+Africa's+General+Information


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Some of the Basics...



South Africa is located at the southernmost point of Africa (About South Africa, n.d.). This country encompasses deserts, coastal plains and endless savannah. It is also home to a variety of African wildlife. There are several other interesting facts to learn about this special country.


 * South Africa is 471,443 square miles.
 * The country is divided into 9 provinces, shown in the map above. There are three capitals located in Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Pretoria.
 * There are 48.8 million people living in South Africa.
 * The population consists of several different ethnicities. Black Africans make up the majority of the population with 79%. The white population makes up 9.6% of the population. The colored, or mixed race, people make up about 8.9% of the population. The Asian population, both Indian and Far Eastern, account for the last 2.5% of the population.
 * South Africa was originally under the rule of the United Kingdom, so most of the white population is of British descent.
 * There are 11 official languages spoken in South Africa. These include: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">English is the most common language spoken in the business and education system <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">s.

Resources: About South Africa. (n.d.). Africa Safari Information. Retrieved November 29, 2010, from http://www.africasafari.org.za/index.php?page=sageneral Google Images. (n.d.). Google Images. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://images.google.com/imghp?hl=EN South Africa's geography. (n.d.). SouthAfrica.info. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from http://www.southafrica.info/about/geography/geography.htm