Since the election of 27 April 1994,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

has been divided into nine provinces. They vary widely in size, from the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi ...

, which covers nearly one-third of the country's land area, to

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

, which takes up a mere 1.5%. The

Prince Edward Islands The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of South Africa. The islands are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and Prince Edward Isla ...

, which are considered part of the Western Cape for legal purposes but are administered by the national Department of Environmental Affairs, are not included in this table; they have surface areas of 290 km² (Marion Island) and 45 km² (Prince Edward Island).

Historical data

The provincial borders have changed twice since 1994: once on 1 March 2006, when all provinces except the Free State and the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

were affected; and once on 3 April 2009, when only the

– North West border was altered. The pre-2006 figures are based on a less accurate calculation, and therefore the total is different from that for the post-2006 figures.

References

{{Lists of the provinces of South Africa

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open su ...

South African provinces by area provinces by area South African provinces