South Africa, at the southernmost tip of the African continent, is home to close to 53 million people.
Representative of the multi-ethnic society, South Africa has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Southern Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. The most popular languages spoken in South African homes are Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans. English is spoken by about 10% of the population.
South Africa is a constitutional parliamentary republic.
Approximately 80% of the population identifies as Christian, including Zion Christian, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Dutch Reformed, Anglican, and others. About 15% claim to have no religion and the remaining population identifies with Muslim, Hindu, Judaism, or traditional African religions.
The currency is the South African rand.