Facts in Q&A format

The South African Police Service's annual report recorded 25,204 murders in 2021/22, an increase of 26.6% from the 19,904 recorded in 2020/21. Of these, 3,198 were women. That’s an average of about nine women murdered every day. ​​Compared to other countries for which statistics are availab...

A World Bank report on inequality in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) – comprising Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa – found that women in SACU on average earn 30% less than their male counterparts (with similar education and other relevant characteristics). In Sout...

Between October and December 2022, South Africa recorded an alarming 12,419 rapes. This equates to a recorded rape rate of 20.3 per 100,000 people (based on the 2022 mid-year population estimates). ...

For 2022, Statistics South Africa estimates the mid-year population to be 60.6 million people. Approximately 51% (about 31 million) of the population is female. ...

According to a report released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), Marriages and Divorces, 2019, the median age is 32 among first-time brides in civil marriages, up from 31 the year before and 30 in 2015. First-time grooms are getting older too – from 34 in 2015 to 35 in 2019. ...

According to 2016 data, 26% of South African women who had ever had a partner had experienced physical, sexual and/or emotional violence. Physical violence was the most common form of violence experienced by these women, at 21%. This was followed by emotional violence (17%) and sexual violence (6%)....

According to the Department of Social Development, more people contacted the Gender-Based Violence Command Centre during the first two months of South Africa’s Covid-19 lockdown. The government established the call centre to “provide immediate care, support and counselling to victims of...

While some men reported spending more time caring for children, an analysis of National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey data found that a bigger share of women devoted more time to childcare during South Africa's Covid-19 lockdown. In interviews with about 7,000 adult re...

The release of South Africa’s official unemployment numbers for the second quarter of 2020 (April to June) has been delayed. According to an analysis of National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey data, women accounted for the bulk of net job losses. This is “because wo...