The Eastern Cape is the country's most dangerous province to live in, followed closely by neighbouring Western Cape.
That's according to an analysis of crime trends over the past 20 years released on Wednesday by the SA Institute of Race Relations.
The institute's Frans Cronje says data shows that the Eastern Cape has a murder rate of more than 50 per 100 thousand people, followed closely by the Western Cape while Gauteng is surprisingly the safest province.
"Why exactly that is the case for the Eastern Cape is not something that we have been able to determine. But, on balance it is positioned now on the murder rate, as one of the more dangerous parts of the country," he said.
"What the graph tells us that we've ranked the provinces according to the murder rate, that is from the lowest to the highest. Limpopo province comes in with a murder rate of about 15 (per 100 000) but that in the Eastern and Western Cape are well above the national average murder rate of 31 per 100 000 people. Compare that internationally, areas like the UK and Australia have murder rates of about 1 per 100 000. So, against that measure the Western and Eastern Cape Province are on balance particularly dangerous place to live in."
Meanwhile, the overall crime trends over the past two decades paints a suprisingly positive picture.
Cronje says in a number of areas of violent crimes and property-related crimes South Africa has recorded declines in those levels.
The most notable example is the murder rate which has fallen by more than 50% over the past 20 years.
However, he said there is a flip side to the story.
"However, within that data there are counterveiling trends and one of those is the trend that relates to armed house and business robberies which has seen very sharp increases in the past decade. The picture therefore is that on balance South Africa is becoming a much safer society but the types of crimes that households and individuals fear the most, the home invasion robberies for example, are increasing very rapidly."
"It's therefore a mixed and somewhat confusing picture that emerges."
Find attached the full presentation fromthe SAIRR
