Spatial demographic change and development typology for South Africa

Abstract

Demography according to Matthews (2013, p. 271) is an inherently spatial science, that has not always been widely applied, yet it is critically important when spatial perspectives has to be developed that inform planning and investment decisions. In the developing country context viewing demography through spatial lenses can improve the understanding of area specific realities and better inform the planning process. This is also true for South Africa where urbanisation (through migration) is still a strong current reality, affecting the South African settlement landscape (Kok & Collinson , 2006). South Africa is fortunate to have a number of spatial units/ frameworks for which information is collected through censuses and additionally through surveys. Additional spatial units such as the ‘CSIR’s mesozones’ have also been developed to aid spatial targeting and to overcome constrains associated with using administrative units. Utilising these units, typologies has been developed to distinguish areas/regions with respect to demographic constructs and trends. Adding to the challenge of complete spatial demographic analysis and the development of typologies is the need to supplement the national statistics with other data such as migration data. This paper profiles the use of alternative spatial frameworks (mesozones) combined with census as well as alternative data to create a demographic change and development typology for South Africa.