People from abroad in South Africa, and South Africa's people abroad

Where they come from

Industries

Where the names come from (estimate)

Where the names in South Africa's company register come from, estimated by a name-origin model and adjusted to South Africa's own mix. These are expected counts, not people with a documented move, and no individual is labelled by them.

Based on 2,926,988 names whose origin the model can place; 2,697,070 names common to many countries are counted but not assigned.

South Africa's people abroad

Abroad, 505,648 people from South Africa are documented in 225 other countries.

South Africa's company register lists 9,485,602 officer rows, 1,526,046 with a stated nationality (self-stamp rate 0.19; above 0.98 the field is ignored as it only repeats the register's own country).

Counts are people with a documented cross-border move: an official register's nationality or birthplace, ORCID/VIAF/Wikidata records, or a dated study-then-work transition. Name-based estimates and heritage (ancestral) readings are not included in these counts. Groups under 5 people are folded into "Other".

Aggregate statistics from official company registers, ORCID, VIAF and Wikidata, compiled by compatriots.net · data build v3_20261030. No individual is named on this page. See methodology & privacy.