Geographical Areas
Two geographic hierarchies are included in the census database for inclusion in
tables. They relate to the place where each household, person or migrant was enumerated in
the census. In summary, the hierarchies are:
| South Africa by local
government |
South Africa by
magisterial district and EA polygons |
South Africa by
magisterial district and place name |
| This hierarchy was
created according to the current government specifications for local government. |
This hierarchy is based,
firstly, on the country's magisterial district boundaries and may be useful for
comparisons with other sources of data, including previous censuses. |
This hierarchy is based,
firstly, on the old magisterial district boundaries and may be useful for comparisons with
other sources of data, including previous censuses. The level below that, Place names, was
created by Stats SA based on common usage of place names in the community. It is presented
in more detail in the Gazetteer. |
Province
>District Council
>>Local Council Category
>>>Local/Rural Council
>>>>EA number |
Province
>Magisterial District
>>EA polygons
>>>EA number |
Province
>Magisterial District
>>Area type (Urban/Non-urban)
>>>Place name
>>>>EA number |
The third geographic hierarchy, South Africa by
magisterial district and EA polygon, is included to make the production of maps quicker
and easier.
| NOTE: |
In some cases, boundaries of local authorities have not
been finally resolved. As a consequence, enumerator areas currently allocated to a
peculiar local authority might eventually be allocated to a rural council, or vice versa.
This will be corrected when boundaries are finalised. |
When using the spatial EA polygons in SuperMAP or otherwise, please note
that there will be polygons which will not have census information due to:
- polygons with zero population, such as factory premises, vacant land, etc.
(Approximately 3500 EAs).
- discrepancies between EAs enumerated during the census and EAs captured on the
GIS. The original demarcation was supposed to have covered the entire country, however in
some parts of the country the demarcation effort tended to focus mainly on the areas that
were populated sometimes leaving the vacant land between settlements/villages
undemarcated. (These EAs consists of approximately 4500 EAs.).
- EAs which were not enumerated in Census '96 have been compensated for by the PES.
(The latter two consists of approximately 4500 EAs.).
Summation options
Summation options allow users to specify the type of records they want included
(persons, household or migrants) and whether they want census counts weighted or
unweighted. More than one summation option can be included in a table. For more
information about summation options, see the sections ‘Household, person and migrant
records’ and ‘Weighting for undercount’.
Enumeration area type
Notes for users
Enumeration area type is a classification of EAs according to (human)
settlement. There were two principles guiding the assignment of an EA to a particular
class or type. The first one was the EAs specific geographical location. The second
principle was the kind of dwellings that were most common within the EA. These two
principles led to locational and settlement types as follows:
Urban - EAs within municipal or local authority
boundaries. These can be further classified as:
| 11 |
Ordinary town or city area as well as
vacant areas. Various formal structures can be found, e.g. houses, blocks of flats and
businesses. |
| 12 |
Area with mainly informal dwellings
(so-called ‘squatter areas’). |
| 13 |
Area with mainly hostels, e.g. mine,
factory and municipal hostels. |
| 14 |
Area with mainly institutions e.g.
prisons and hospitals. |
Semi-urban - EAs with population concentrations
adjacent to a municipal border (an EA must have one common boundary with the municipal
border). These can be further classified as:
21 Semi-town (i.e., a town without a local
authority) with predominantly formal dwellings.
22 Area with mainly informal dwellings.
23 Area with mainly hostels.
24 Area with mainly institutions.
Rural - EAs situated in rural areas (not sharing a
common boundary with a proclaimed urban municipal area). These can be further classified
as:
| 31 |
Semi-town (i.e. a town
without a local authority) with predominantly formal dwellings such as mining, and
industrial towns where housing for employees is provided by employers. |
| 32 |
Village/settlement
without a local authority and which is not situated within a tribal area and with formal
and semi-formal dwellings such as houses, huts and rondavels. |
| 33 |
Tribal authority area
with villages. |
| 34 |
Area with mainly informal
dwellings. |
| 35 |
Area with mainly hostels.
|
| 36 |
Area with mainly
institutions. |
| 37 |
Area with farms,
agricultural holdings, holiday resorts, agricultural schools and colleges. |
| 38 |
Tribal authority area
outside of villages. |
These EA types could be combined into larger units
for various purposes. For example, for the purpose of stratification for drawing a sample
for the census post-enumeration survey (PES) the areas (excluding hostels) were collapsed
into five EA types, namely
urban, formal (11, 14)
urban, informal (12)
commercial farms (37)
tribal authority areas (33) and
other non-urban areas (21, 22, 24, 31, 32, 34, 36, 38).
In Census in Brief areas were collapsed into
two categories, urban and non-urban. Urban included EA types
11-14 i.e. all those within a proclaimed municipal area. Non-urban included all
other EA types.
Source
‘Enumeration area type’ relates to the types allocated during Census
’96 demarcation, which were verified and, in some cases, updated during ‘Project
Eagle’. ‘Project Eagle’ involved the preparation of a GIS (Geographical
Information System which is a computerised mapping system) covering the whole of South
Africa. This project was conducted during the two years following the census.
Applicable population
All persons, all households
Final code list
| 11 |
Urban: formal |
| 12 |
Urban: informal |
| 13 |
Urban: hostels |
| 14 |
Urban: institutions |
| 21 |
Semi-urban: formal |
| 22 |
Semi-urban: informal |
| 23 |
Semi-urban: hostels |
| 24 |
Semi-urban: institutions |
| 31 |
Rural: formal |
| 32 |
Rural: formal/semi-formal |
| 33 |
Rural: tribal villages |
| 34 |
Rural: informal |
| 35 |
Rural: hostels |
| 36 |
Rural: institutions |
| 37 |
Rural: farms |
| 38 |
Rural: tribal exc.
villages |
| 99 |
Unknown or Dummy
household. |
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