The stories in Gauteng’s street names: Street naming as a form of urban storytelling
This Map of the Month explores the origins of street names across Gauteng using OpenStreetMap data. Almost 44 000 street names were analysed and classified into four broad semantic categories: People, Geographical locations, Fauna and Flora, and Other. The analysis shows that more than half of street names commemorate individuals, highlighting how political and social memory is embedded in the province’s urban landscape. Naming patterns reveal broader place connections, themed neighbourhood identities, and symbolic resonances that together make Gauteng’s streets a layered archive of memory, identity, and representation.
Date of publication:
April 2026
Author(s):
Changes to population distribution in the GCR (1996-2022)
This map returns to a theme and approach in some of GCRO’s earliest Maps of the Month – using dot density cartography to illustrate the size and distribution of the GCR population. Census data from previous periods, and Census 2022 data released at the ward level in November 2025 is used to plot a consistent sequence of population distribution maps for 1996, 2001, 2011 and 2022. The analysis reveals that the population of the wider GCR within a radius of 175 km from the centre of Johannesburg now stands at over 20 million.
Date of publication:
March 2026
Digital divide in Gauteng
Gauteng’s digital divide is the focus of the January 2026 Map of the Month. We explore the spatial pattern of access to home internet and how this varies by race and household income. In many townships and peripheral areas (areas with below-average household incomes and predominantly black African), fewer than 40% of households have a home internet connection. This negatively impacts access to opportunities and pathways to inclusive growth.
Date of publication:
January 2026
Author(s):
Geography of contentment: Life satisfaction across wards in Gauteng
This Map of the Month shows variation in life satisfaction across wards in Gauteng. Using data from GCRO’s Quality of Life (QoL) Survey 7 (2023/24), it highlights how some wards have higher average life satisfaction than others. Additional analysis shows which wards have experienced increases or decreases in life satisfaction between 2020/21 and 2023/24, reflecting the post-COVID-19 context. The analysis also explores average life satisfaction across a range of other demographic, economic and subjective variables.
Date of publication:
November 2025
Author(s):
Linked to project(s):
Quality of life studies: Insights and analysis
The suffocating cost of transport in the Gauteng City-Region
This Map of the Month shows that where you live in Gauteng determines how much of your income you spend on travel. In many wards in township areas and on the periphery of the GCR, people travelling to work or shop may spend on average up to 50% of their per capita household income on transport. This is far above the national affordability target of 10%. The map reveals a deep spatial inequality where the poor are effectively ‘taxed by distance’, paying proportionally more to access work and shops. Without targeted subsidies and integrated planning, the relative cost of mobility will remain a key barrier to opportunity.
Date of publication:
October 2025
