South Africans are delaying marriage – sometimes indefinitely – because of the uncertain job market.

Andrew Fulton, Director at Eighty20 joins Gugulethu Mfuphi on Kaya Biz to shares the recent trends from the Census 2022 Population Count.

The Census report which was released in October 2023, counted 62 027 503 people across 17.8 million households and shows a change in household dynamics, marriage behaviour and ultimately birth rates across different segments of the country’s population.

 

Not only are South Africans having smaller families, but the birth rate has also dropped, meaning the level of fertility at which a population replaces itself is coming down.

The reasons for the decline in birth rates during the past few decades include postponed family formation and child-bearing and a decrease in family sizes, but also improved medical care, especially birth control, sanitation, water supply, diet and lower child mortality.

This coupled with the cost of having children which has skyrocketed over the past few decades are why more South Africans are not just delaying marriage, but delaying having children.

“The median age for brides has increased from 31 in 2015 to 33 in 2021.

Oince again, t costs a bit of money to get married, particularly in some societies. There’s the high cost of living, so it’s a question of whether you can afford to bring somebody else and children into your life?

Social norms are also changing, and people are opting not to get married. They might still be having children, but they are not getting married.

The other stat that was very interesting is that 70% of new births are happening outside of marriage, so yes, there’s definitely a change in marriage trends in SA.