Using the 2001 Census: Approaches to analysing data¶
Statistics South Africa; Human Sciences Research Council (2007). Using the 2001 Census: Approaches to analysing data. Statistics South Africa, Pretoria.
| Type | report |
| Scope | Comparative and methods |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1798–2001 |
| Regions | South Africa, Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei |
| Themes | methods data sources, bantustans removals influx, demography urbanisation, inequality poverty unemployment, education human capital, labour markets wages, transition post apartheid |
| Citation key | africa2007 |
Argument¶
This is a users' handbook, not an argumentative study. It explains how the 1996 and 2001 post-apartheid censuses were designed, mapped and disseminated, and how users can analyse their migration, education, labour force, fertility, gender and services data. Chapter 2 is the most relevant to apartheid economic history. It shows how apartheid politics distorted census coverage and the data series: race-specific questionnaires, boycotts, exclusion of the 'independent' homelands, and undercount adjustments. The remaining chapters are technical and mostly post-1994.
Evidence and method¶
Stats SA and HSRC documents, census questionnaires, newspaper articles from 1979-1996, interviews, Census 1996 and 2001 tables, and the Labour Force Survey of September 2001.
Findings¶
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The homeland policy badly damaged the quality of official statistics and left gaps in the census series. (p. 22)
The effect of the homeland policy on the quality of official statistics for South Africa was devastating. Data for the censuses in the Transkei were never fully recovered.
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Before 1980 black South Africans were enumerated only by sample, using a separate questionnaire. (p. 20)
In the 1960 and 1970 censuses there was a full count only for white, coloured and Asian people. A different questionnaire was used for black people, for whom a small sample was enumerated.
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The 1991 census omitted the independent homelands and used aerial photographs to estimate informal settlement populations, and influx control had broken down. (p. 19)
In 1991 large parts of the country were not demarcated into enumeration areas. Excluded from the demarcation process were the independent homelands (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei)
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Apartheid influx-control regulations criminalised many people and undermined trust in census taking. (p. 23)
The regulations that controlled internal migration forced a status of illegality on a large section of the population.
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A 1985 Transkei sample census showed that the 1980 census had undercounted massively, and the results were not made public. (p. 22)
The sampled areas showed a massive undercount had occurred in the 1980 census.
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The 1996 census was the first to cover the whole country with uniform treatment of all residents. (p. 20)
Census ’96 was the first census in which the whole country was covered and all residents of the country were treated equally.
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Migration data for the whole country exist only for 1996 and 2001; earlier censuses left out homelands. (p. 80)
Only the 1996 and 2001 censuses yielded migration data for the entire country.
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The census measure of unemployment is far higher than the Labour Force Survey figure because of definitional differences. (p. 117)
the significant difference between the 2001 census measure of unemployment at 42% and unemployment as estimated at 29,5% in the 2001 Labour Market Survey
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In 2001 the potential labour force was 28.2 million, with 9.5 million employed and 6.8 million unemployed. (p. 131)
Of these 16,3 million economically active people, 9,5 million (58%) were employed while 6,8 million people (42%) wanted to work (or were actively seeking work) but could not find a job
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Racial and gender inequalities in the labour force persisted after apartheid. (p. 133)
the unemployment rate for blacks is considerably higher than for whites, and female unemployment across all races is higher than male unemployment