POPULATION GEOGRAPHY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper is a review of contemporary population geography issues in South Africa. It examines the nature, character, methodologies and significance of this sub-discipline in the study of geography by exploring the publications of South African geographers since the dawn of the twentieth century. The study shows that colonial and apartheid policies had such an impact on the development of the South African space economy that, although local geographers made valuable contributions on regional population studies in academic journals, population geography is generally still in its infancy in South Africa. The establishment of the democratic political dispensation in 1994 coupled with international concern about population, environment and development, generated an increasing interest in population studies in South Africa. The paper demonstrates the necessity for a closer collaboration between population geography and other allied development disciplines. Population geography is increasingly being recognized in South African institutions of higher learning as a subject of universal, pragmatic and practical value.