FEWER foreigners live in South Africa than previously thought, the latest census report has revealed.

But figures compiled by Statistics South Africa show that nationals from across Africa live in the Southernmost tip of the continent.

Stats SA says it has counted 2.2-million foreign nationals during last year's population count, which is up from 1.2-million a decade ago.

The census report indicates that nationals from 53 African nations are represented in South Africa. Only Western Sahara and the tiny Portuguese-speaking island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe, with a population of about 183000, did not have nationals living in South Africa.

According to the figures 605416 Zimbabweans make up most of the foreign population, while Mozambique takes second place with 377021 nationals.

Lesotho had the third largest foreign population ,with 142694 immigrants in the country. Malawi (74180), Swaziland (33151), Zambia (27163), Ethiopia (25578), Congo (25031), Nigeria (23757) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (22538) also counted as having some of the largest numbers of nationals residing in South Africa.

Djibouti only had five nationals on our shores, Guinea Bissau (6), Saint Helena (7), Cape Verde (9), Mauritania (14), Gambia (22) and Central African Republic (24) had the lowest number of nationals in the country. - molatlhwao@sowetan.co.za