Whether chatting with friends or discussing our ministry in South Africa, people often ask us, “How big is South Africa?”
South Africa is the 24th-largest country in the world and the ninth-largest country in the continent of Africa. Its 471,445 square miles make it about one-eighth the size of the United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean on the west and southwest and the Indian Ocean on the southeast and east.
A good way to visualize it is to imagine it overlaid with the southeastern United States.
The shapes of the two countries’ coastlines are relatively similar (minus the Florida peninsula), so if you align Cape Town approximately with New Orleans, then South Africa would follow the US coast to Virginia Beach, with the city of Durban roughly equal to Wilmington, North Carolina. The neighboring cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg would be roughly west of Roanoke, Virginia, and the northeastern tip of the country would extend into New York state’s Southern Tier region. South Africa’s western tip would be in Arkansas, and its curving northern border would include Columbus, Ohio, and St. Louis, Missouri.
The website TheTrueSize.com (https://www.thetruesize.com/) enabled me to make this overlay of South Africa and the eastern USA (map link below the screenshot).
Some other details:
- South Africa has over 62 million people, and its largest city is Johannesburg, with 4.8 million people in the city itself and nearly 7.9 million in the overall metro area. The country distributes its government into three capitals: the executive branch in Pretoria, the legislative in Cape Town, and the judicial in Bloemfontein.
- Driving between far-flung cities is more difficult and expensive than here in the US, so air travel is often preferred.
- It has 12 official languages—Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, English, Pedi, Tswana, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda, and Southern Ndebele (from most spoken to least as a first language), as well as South African Sign Language. English is used as the lingua franca.
- While most South Africans are Christian, many secularize it or syncretize that faith with other belief systems, and there are large populations of Muslims, Hindus, traditional African religions, Jewish people, and people who are non-religious.
- Many non-Christians come to South Africa as refugees or migrant workers from other countries where it can be harder for Christian workers to go, allowing them to learn about Christ in South Africa and sometimes to take that introduction to their own families and friends in their home countries.
- Rates of unemployment and crime are high, with many factors and challenges contributing.
- There are always ministry needs and opportunities among South Africa’s many peoples and communities. We are grateful to be part of the work of meeting those needs and loving people in Christ’s name.
Please join us in praying for South Africa: the country; its leaders, government, and economy; and its people—that every one would find peace, safety, prosperity, and joy in their daily needs and their eternal ones. Thank you.
The Heffron Family 