Two key drivers of development in the twenty-first century are urbanization and
the youth bulge in the global South. Over the past decade international agencies
such as UN-Habitat and academic writers have directed attention to the
significance of “youth in cities”. They show how the move of youth into cities
provide an unparalleled opportunity for society and economy but also presents
high degree of risk if large numbers of urban youth are denied the advantages of
being in cities. In South Africa, relatively little attention has been given to the
growing concentration of youth in cities, although the National Development Plan
(NDP) does refer to an “an urbanising, youthful population [presenting] an
opportunity to boost economic growth, increase employment and reduce poverty”
(RSA, 2012, p. 30).
This report directs explicit focus to the theme of youth in cities in South Africa
drawing mainly on data from Census 2011. It is focused mainly on the question of
whether cities address the needs of youth better than other areas but, before
addressing this question, the report provides contextual information on cities and
youth.
It shows how difficult it is to define “city” or “urban” in the South African
context and also how complex and differentiated the urban network is. The report provides a working defining of municipalities with large metropolitan cities and
those with secondary cities and minor cities. Although the report uses the
municipality as the unit of spatial analysis it shows how municipalities do come
together to form larger urban agglomerations – such as, for example, the Gauteng
City-Region (GCR).
The report shows that 60% of South Africa’s population and over 80% of
economic output is concentrated in cities, with around 37% of population and
nearly 60% of economic output from the large metropolitan municipalities. This
concentration is increasing as city municipalities perform better economically
than non-city municipalities, and as households respond to this differential by
moving from non-city municipalities to city municipalities.