GEOGRAPHY HIERARCHY

 
This part of the metadata refers to the geographical location of the enumeration area (EA).
 
The flow diagram below explains the hierarchical structure used for geographical areas in Census 2001.
 
Figure 1.
 

* will be expanded to metropolitan substructures when available

 
 
The structure consists of the following geographical entities, which fit into different geographical hierarchical levels:
 
South Africa
Province
District Council (DC - Category C) or Metropolitan Area (Category A)
Magisterial districts (MD)
Local Municipality (Category B), or District Management Area (DMA)
Electoral ward
Main Place
Sub-place
Enumeration Area (EA)
 
While the structure is intended to be hierarchical, South Africa’s geography has cross-boundary entities which
complicate the picture. For example, there are eight municipalities which lie across provincial boundary lines. Users are
advised to bear this in mind when choosing the appropriate hierarchy. For example, for the City of Tshwane, which lies
in two provinces, one would not use the provincial hierarchy.

Note that in some sparsely populated areas electoral wards have not been defined (Ward 0).

Some main place or sub-place names occur in different places, such as Springs, which occurs in Ekhuruleni, Mnquma
and Lesedi municipalities, or Mandela Park, which occurs in four provinces. Users should be aware of this when cross-
tabulating data at lower geographical levels. For such places, users can use the look-up tables to find the geocode of
the exact place they require. Data can then be accessed using the unique geocode. The look-up tables can be found
at: www.statssa.gov.za. They are listed in the Census products immediately after the Geography metadata.