500k Whites Exited in 25 Years

Stats SA report pinpoints key migration figures.

- Masoka Dube, Marizka Coetzer & Oratile Mashilo

More than half a million white South Africans have left the country in the past 25 years, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA)'s latest Mid-Year Population Estimates report for 2025, but what it means for the country even experts cannot put their fingers on.

Stats SA's data, which includes net international migration assumptions by population group, reveals that 555 497 white citizens emigrated from South Africa from 2001 to 2025 with consistent net losses recorded every five years.

By contrast, black African, coloured and Indian/Asian population groups all show net gains from international migration over the same period.

Between 2021 and next year, for example, 903 697 black African migrants will be expected to have entered the country.

Freedom Front Plus spokesperson for Labour, Heloise Denner, said the loss of so many South Africans was regrettable, but one cannot blame them.

"Many are leaving the country due to poor service delivery, crime and limited job opportunities due to the ANC's insistence on imposing outdated race-based legislation on the South African labour market," she said.