Economy of the Western Cape
Clockwise from top: A panel from the frescoes in the Assembly Room, Mutual Building in Cape Town, painted by Le Roux Smith in 1942; the fresco illustrates the importance of agriculture and shipping to the economy of the Western Cape in the early half of the 20th century. Cheeses production in Stanford. Recently galvanised pipes being finished in a Cape Town. The Cape Town City Bowl. The port at Cape Town. Agricultural workers picking grapes in a Western Cape vineyard. | |
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| GDP | ZAR 918 billion (US$ 56 billion) (2022) |
| 0.58 (2010) | |
| 0.75 | |
Labour force | 2,785,871 (2016) |
| Unemployment | 19.7% (2017) |
| Public finances | |
| Revenues | R269.58 billion (2020) - to national ficus |
| Expenses | R72.3 billion (2021) |
The economy of the Western Cape in South Africa is dominated by the city of Cape Town, which accounted for 72.4% of the Western Cape's economic activity in 2023. The single largest contributor to the region's economy is the financial and business services sector, followed by manufacturing. Close to 30% of the gross regional product comes from foreign trade with agricultural products and wine dominating exports. High-tech industries, international call centres, fashion design, advertising and TV production are niche industries rapidly gaining in importance.
The Western Cape province had a real GDP (constant 2015 prices) for 2023 of R660.60 billion (equivalent to US$35.67 billion) growing from R603.10 billion in 2013. In 2023 the economy grew by 0.8% with an annual inflation rate of 5.6%. The province accounts for 14% of South Africa's total GDP with Cape Town accounting for approximately 10.1% of the country's total GDP in 2023. The Western Cape had a GDP per capita of R88,438 compared to the national average of just below R75,000 per capita in 2023. At 19.6% the province has a substantially lower unemployment rate than the national average standing at 31.9% in Q4 2024. In Q4 2024, number of unemployed people declined by 16,000, year-over-year, with employment figures increasing by 2.3% over the same period. Between 2019 and 2024 the province generated a disproportionately large number of jobs relative to the region's size; creating 52.2% of all new net employment in the country.