SA’s most connected province

·22 Jun 2014

Statistics South Africa published its General household survey 2013, which showed that the Western Cape has the highest percentage of households which use the Internet.

The report showed that more than a third of South African households (40.9%) had at least one member who used the Internet either at home, the workplace, a place of study, or at Internet cafés.

More than half of households in Western Cape (54.4%) and Gauteng (54%) had access to the Internet, while only just over a fifth of households in Limpopo (21.9%) had access to the Internet.

While these households have members accessing the Internet, it does not mean that people had access to Internet at home. Only one‐tenth of South African households had access to the Internet at home.

Access to the Internet in the home was highest among households in Western Cape (21.1%) and Gauteng (15.7%), and lowest in North West (4.5%) and Limpopo (3%).

Households in rural areas were generally least likely to have had access to the Internet while those in metro areas generally had the best access.

Internet at home

Where people access the Internet

The places where the largest percentages of South Africans tend to access the Internet include, at work (16.2%), within the household/at home (10.0%), and at school/university/college (5.1%).

Using mobile devices to access the Internet comprises access on cellular telephones or using mobile access devices such as a 3G cards. Mobile access to the Internet has made it much more accessible to households in rural areas.

Whereas only 2.0%, 3.2% and 2.6% of households respectively had access to the Internet at home, at work and elsewhere, almost 18% had access through mobile devices.

Mobile devices also created opportunities in urban areas where larger proportions of urban and metro households had access to the Internet through mobile devices in KwaZulu‐Natal and Gauteng.