Gauteng's area is about 17,000 square kilometers, approximately 1.4% of the land area of South Africa making it the smallest of the nine provinces. Nevertheless, Gauteng is the second most populated province of South Africa. It is home to 8.8 million people (according to the October 2001 census), almost 20% of the total South-African population. Being also the province with the fastest growing population (over 20% increase of population between the 1996 and 2001 census), Gauteng is likely to soon become the most populated province of South Africa.
The name Gauteng comes from the seSotho phrase meaning Place of Gold, referring to the thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. The Sesotho phrase was in turn derived from the Afrikaans gaud (gold) plus the locative suffix ng. When properly pronounced, the first letter of the name Gauteng is a guttural G, pronounced similarly to the ch in the German achtung or Scottish loch. This guttural pronunciation is natural in both the Sesotho and Afrikaans languages.
Gauteng's capital is Johannesburg. Other cities in the province include:
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