Population group for Emalahleni
Population group for Emalahleni eMalahleni is composed of all racial groups with 391,982 Black African, which shows an increase since 2011; Coloured 5 450; Indian or Asian 3 762 and White 54 033. The tables below show an increase in both African/Black and Indian/Asian and decrease in both Coloured and White population since 2011.
Population Pyramid
The population of Emalahleni is predominantly youth (15-34 years) at 43.1% of the total population. The challenges that are posed by the youthful population in the main are socio-economic. It means that the municipality should grow the economy to meet employment needs of the youth, which at present is estimated to grow at less than 0.9% between 2018 and 2023. This implies that the LED Strategy of the municipality should prioritize skilling youth so that they could participate in the main stream economy.
The municipality should also provide social infrastructure like schools, clinics/hospitals and sporting facilities. The social infrastructure referred to will help highly reduce social ills that mainly happen when the youth idle. The youthful population also poses spatial planning challenges, especially housing immediately and in the future. The municipality has to be proactive and buy land to discourage informal settlements and land invasions.
Sex Ration, 1996-2016
The age and gender structure of the population is a key determinant of population change and dynamics. The shape of the age distribution is an indication of both current and future needs regarding educational provision for younger children, health care for the whole population and vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children, employment opportunities for those in the economic age groups, and provision of social security services such as pension and assistance to those in need. The age and sex structure of smaller geographic areas are even more important to understand given the sensitivity of small areas to patterns of population dynamics such as migration and fertility.
The recent SERO Report indicates that there is 47, 1% females and 52, 9% males. This is surprising because in most cases females are more than males. However this may be as a result of young males coming into Emalahleni looking for employment.
Disability
Disability is one measure used to evaluate the health of a population. It is defined as a health condition that limits functioning. eMalahleni has people with difficulties of walking or climbing stairs as shown in the below graph. This is an important disaggregation to note for knowledge of what types of resources are needed by disabled persons within eMalahleni. The below table indicate the rate of people leaving with disability and there are planned programmes intended for people leaving with disability. In the Figure 5, most people can do with a certain difficulty but the self-care is the most affected as there is a lot of people who have a lot of difficulty and some cannot do at all.
