South AfricaZAF
64,747,319
World development data, made comparable
Read a market in context,
not as a single number.
Compare long-term economic and digital indicators with the source year, methodology and missing data kept visible.
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people
341,784,857
| Year | South Africa | United States |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 64,747,319 | 341,784,857 |
| 2024 | 64,007,187 | 340,003,797 |
| 2023 | 63,212,384 | 336,755,052 |
| 2022 | 62,378,410 | 333,996,304 |
| 2021 | 61,502,603 | 332,100,166 |
| 2020 | 60,562,381 | 331,578,104 |
| 2019 | 59,587,885 | 330,226,227 |
| 2018 | 58,613,001 | 328,529,577 |
| 2017 | 57,635,162 | 326,608,609 |
| 2016 | 57,259,551 | 324,353,340 |
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators. Retrieved 2026-08-26. Values can be revised by the source.
Why the year matters
A country can look stronger simply because one series is newer. We display each observation year instead of pretending every value is current.
Change needs a baseline
The latest number alone says little about direction. Every card compares it with an available observation roughly five years earlier.
National data has limits
These indicators describe whole economies. They do not capture city-level costs, sector regulation or the experience of an individual company.
Curated starting points
Popular market comparisons
Seven indicators together provide more context than a single headline number.
Learn the method
Read the measure before the ranking
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A practical workflow for comparing countries while respecting source years, definitions, scale and uncertainty.
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