Working with Statistics South Africa, Google has published the 2011 South Africa Population Census results and annual mid-year population estimates on Google Public Data Explorer (PDE), its second Sub-Saharan partnership.
PDE is a platform designed to help people understand statistics and data through rich, interactive visualisations and has already been used in Kenya.
There are different ways to use the census data on PDE. Data can be compared across provinces and municipalities using the four main categories available – Demographics, Education, Households, and Labour Market.
For example the unemployment rate across all South Africa’s nine provinces can be compared against the national average.
Added to this, the unemployment rate can be compared within a province such as Gauteng, across the municipalities of City of Tshwane, City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
The data is also available to view in different formats – line graphs, bar graphs, maps or bubble charts, across time and geographical location.
Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Google South Africa’s Public Policy Manager, said: “At Google, we’re working to promote citizens’ access to information in line with the principles of the Open Government Partnership, by providing ‘high-value information, including raw data, in a timely manner, in formats that the public can easily locate, understand and use, and in formats that facilitate reuse.’ Over the next few months, we will continue working with Stats SA to put together more of their data on PDE.”
The population estimates data is dynamic, which means graphs/charts move and grow over time, change topics, and highlight different categories. Here is a video showing you how it works:
