Pretoria - South Africa's population grew by 530 000 in the 12 months from June last year, Stats SA said on Tuesday.

This brought the 2010 mid-year population count to 49.99 million people.

Releasing its report, Stats SA said the estimates covered all the residents of the country at 2010 mid-year, and were based on the latest available information.

The mid-year population estimates show that 51% (about 25.66 million) of the population were woman.

In Gauteng, the largest of the population count, approximately 11.19 million (22.4%) were registered.

KwaZulu Natal had the second largest population with 21.3% people or 10.65 million people.

With a population of about 1.10 million people (2.2%), the Northern Cape remained the province with the smallest share of the South African population.

Nearly one-third (31.0%) of the population was aged younger than 15 years and about 7.6% (3.8 million) was 60 years or older.

Of those younger than 15 years, about 23% (3.52 million) lived in KwaZulu-Natal and 19.3% (2.99 million) lived in Gauteng.

Migration was an important demographic process in shaping the age structure and distribution of the provincial population.

Between 2006 and 2011 it was estimated that about 211 600 people would migrate from the Eastern Cape with 140 000 people expected to leave Limpopo.

During the same period, Gauteng and Western Cape were expected to experience a net inflow of migrants of about 364 400 and 94 600 respectively.

Life expectancy at birth was estimated at 53.3 years for men and 55.2 years for women.

The infant mortality rate was set at a figure of about 46.9 per 1 000 live births, Stats SA said.

Originally published by News24