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NXS-GRX-ZAF · Southern Africa · Regions

South Africa: 9 provinces, states and territories

Every administrative level, from the 9 first-level units down to ADM4, on a terrain map with people, density and sources.

Map All units Country map
Page GRX-ZAF-REdition Baseline Edition 2026Evidence close 2026-09-30ISO ZAF / ZAStatus UN member stateValues not yet publishedMethod v1.0.0-draft
9
first-level units
4,666
units at 4 levels
60,839,693
people (GHSL 2025)
Terrain
open relief

01Ramani

South Africa by province, state and territory

9 first-level units and 52 second-level units inside them, raised by people per km² over the population grid and terrain. Select a unit to drill in or open its page.

FIG 1 · 9 first-level units of South Africa
Loading the map

Units rise with people per km² · GHSL 2025 raster · terrain · ADM1 ADM2Risk values when released
Lowest fifthLow fifthMiddle fifthHigh fifthHighest fifthNo data
Column height and colour show people per km² by unit, in quantile fifths among the units shown (the key on the map gives the breaks); units with no people on the grid are grey, not the lowest class; the raster beneath is the GHSL 2025 population grid. Source observations, not index values. Choose a humanitarian figure from the list to colour and raise the units by it; each figure shows its source on the unit page. Select a unit to drill into the units inside it; the path above the map climbs back.
02Ngazi

Every administrative level of South Africa

Each level comes from the boundary source admitted for that country and level, with its own licence.

ADM1
9 first-level units · geoBoundaries gbOpen · Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · each with its own page
ADM2
52 second-level units · geoBoundaries gbOpen · Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · each with its own page
ADM3
213 third-level units · geoBoundaries gbOpen · Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · in the maps, tables and downloads of the pages above
ADM4
4,392 fourth-level units · geoBoundaries gbOpen · Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · in the maps, tables and downloads of the pages above
03Units

All 9 first-level units

Two population estimates from open grids, summed inside each boundary. The CSV carries the first two levels; each unit page carries the levels below it.

Boundary licences: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)

Unit Code People (GHSL) People (WorldPop) Area km² Per km² Share Coast ≤ 10 m
Eastern Cape EC 6,652,447 7,144,388 169,081 39 10.9% 121,023
Free State FS 2,761,188 3,098,353 130,013 21 4.5% 0
Gauteng GT 16,752,859 15,728,387 18,212 920 27.5% 0
KwaZulu-Natal KZ 10,860,960 12,608,892 94,496 115 17.9% 128,850
Limpopo LI 5,970,095 6,871,096 126,043 47 9.8% 0
Mpumalanga MP 4,911,134 5,433,758 76,641 64 8.1% 0
North West NW 4,166,067 3,849,247 105,079 40 6.8% 0
Nothern Cape NC 1,408,813 1,403,391 373,348 4 2.3% 556
Western Cape WC 7,356,130 7,283,192 129,535 57 12.1% 403,107
04Hatari

Subnational risk products

Values when released. Subnational risk values for South Africa publish with the edition from The Global Risks Index, with intervals and sources. Until then these pages show boundaries, people and exposure only.
05Vyanzo

Sources, credits and licences

ADM1 boundaries
geoBoundaries (William & Mary geoLab), gbOpen ZAF ADM1, source: OCHA ROSEA, South African Municipal Demarcation Board, licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · source · represents 2020
ADM2 boundaries
geoBoundaries (William & Mary geoLab), gbOpen ZAF ADM2, source: OCHA ROSEA, South African Municipal Demarcation Board, licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · source · represents 2020
ADM3 boundaries
geoBoundaries (William & Mary geoLab), gbOpen ZAF ADM3, source: OCHA ROSEA, South African Municipal Demarcation Board, licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · source · represents 2020
ADM4 boundaries
geoBoundaries (William & Mary geoLab), gbOpen ZAF ADM4, source: OCHA ROSEA, South African Municipal Demarcation Board, licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO) · source · represents 2020
Basemap
OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles (CC BY 4.0) · data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL 1.0). Vector tiles requested by the reader’s browser, unmodified; the map falls back to plain land and sea when the host does not answer.
Terrain
Terrain Tiles (Mapzen, AWS Open Data), compiled from SRTM and other public elevation sources (NASA, USGS, ETOPO1, GMTED, EU-DEM under the Copernicus programme, Geoscience Australia, Kartverket, INEGI, LINZ, data.gov.uk). Display relief, not survey data.
People
GHSL 2025 population grid, European Commission Joint Research Centre (CC BY 4.0), shown at 0.05° and summed per unit; WorldPop 2025 (CC BY 4.0) as a second estimate. Units smaller than a grid cell take the density of the cell under them.
Nchi
Natural Earth (public domain).
Elevation
GEBCO Compilation Group (2024) GEBCO 2024 Grid (public domain), reduced to 0.05°: the share of each cell’s land at or below 10 m, weighted by GHSL 2025 people for the low coastal zone.
Position
Boundaries are shown for location only and take no position on any boundary, name or status.

Explore South Africa

Open any unit, download every level, or run a scenario on open data.

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Hali

The methodology, structure and definitions of The Global Risks Index are a preparatory working draft (2026), circulated for review and comment and not for implementation. No value appears until an edition is released from a governed evidence cut; values then carry intervals, classes, sources and their correction pathway. Simulators run the published methods on numbers you choose and never show a NXS-GRX value.

A country profile reads public evidence about a place. It is not a statement by or about the policy of any government, takes no position on the status of any territory, and does not imply a national programme or participation. Names follow UN M49.

NXS-GRX si nini

NXS-GRX ni taarifa ya utafiti na uchambuzi wa hatari. Si daraja la mikopo wala la ESG na haitumii kipimo chochote cha daraja, si kigezo cha vyombo vya fedha, si takwimu rasmi, si onyo la dharura wala uainishaji rasmi, na si ushauri. Haipaswi kutumiwa kutathmini watu binafsi. Madaraja ya hatari ni mikanda kwenye kipimo kilichochapishwa, kamwe si mpangilio wa nchi au watu.

Ishara za Pulse na uwezekano wa mtazamo ni taarifa za kukaguliwa na mamlaka husika, kamwe si maonyo ya umma; maonyo rasmi hutoka tu kwa mamlaka zilizopewa jukumu.

Taasisi na vyanzo

The Nexus Consortium is stewarded by three independent not-for-profit institutions: The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), through GCRI US in Washington, DC and GCRI Canada in Ontario, with GCRI Canada as Lead Institution, Consortium Secretariat and lead contracting organisation; The Global Risks Forum (GRF); and The Global Risks Alliance (GRA). Technology, infrastructure and service providers work with the Consortium at arm’s length under written agreements, like every other external party in the public-private-planet model, and hold no role in its stewardship.

Every value carries the attribution of its sources, which keep their own licences. External names are cited for interoperability only. Nexus-authored text is intended for CC BY 4.0 on release.

Avis en français

La méthodologie et les définitions du NXS-GRX sont un projet de travail préparatoire (2026). Le NXS-GRX est une information de recherche et d’analyse des risques : ni notation, ni indice de référence financier, ni statistique officielle, ni alerte, ni conseil. Les classes de risque sont des bandes sur une échelle publiée, non des classements.