Popularity ranking · South Africa

The 100 most popular Universities in South Africa

This curated ranking covers the 100 largest universities in South Africa, ordered by estimated audience size from Rascasse's anonymized search-behavior signals. Out of 1.9k universities tracked in South Africa, the 100 ranked here account for the largest measured audience reach. University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town and University of Pretoria lead the list with a combined estimated audience of 1.6M people. Across all 100 entries the average audience size is 70k, and the largest, University of the Witwatersrand, reaches around 728k people in South Africa. Audience size is the estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with each university, derived from search demand signals. Rankings reflect search-behavior signals collected across South Africa and are refreshed weekly.

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How to read this list

Rank

Position in the Top 100, sorted by audience size from largest to smallest. Updated weekly.

Audience size

Estimated number of unique people in South Africa who actively engage with this audience, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals.

Country share

Share of the global audience that is active in South Africa. A higher value means the audience is more locally concentrated here.

Avg age

Average age in years across the people who engage with this audience in South Africa, derived from anonymized search-behavior signals. A dash means demographic data is not yet available.

Female share

Share of women among the people who engage with this audience in South Africa. 50% is gender-balanced; values above mean female-skewed, below mean male-skewed.

Ranking

Rank Audience Audience size Avg age Female share Subtype
1 University of the Witwatersrand 728k 36.1 69.8% University
2 University of Cape Town 472k 35.9 63.3% University
3 University of Pretoria 446k 36.9 61.1% University
4 University of KwaZulu-Natal 419k 35.4 74.8% University
5 University of South Africa 332k 34.3 61.2% University
6 University of Johannesburg 317k 33.2 56.1% University
7 Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University 305k 34.5 83.8% University
8 Durban University of Technology 269k 30.0 54.6% University
9 Stellenbosch University 229k 36.6 64.3% University
10 University of Oxford 215k 31.3 60.8% University
11 Technical University of Madrid 172k 36.2 39.9% University
12 University of Lagos 155k 32.6 54.8% University
13 North-West University 140k 33.9 60.2% University
14 unisa university south africa 135k 33.0 60.1% University
15 University of the Free State 134k 35.1 70.7% University
16 Harvard University 118k 30.9 59.2% University
17 International Organization for Standardization 117k 39.9 51.1% University
18 University of Central Oklahoma 90k 41.0 90.7% University
19 University of Stellenbosch Business School 88k 39.3 58.9% University
20 Colgate University 86k 40.0 52.3% University
21 Rhodes University 81k 31.6 70.6% University
22 University of Cambridge 72k 31.2 64.8% University
23 Union College 70k 31.7 57.6% University
24 Cape Peninsula University of Technology 63k 31.0 58.9% University
25 Harvard Business School 52k 35.6 49.0% University

Want the full picture for any of these audiences?

Open any profile to see psychographics, top regions, peer affinities and demographic splits — all derived from the same anonymized signals.

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Frequently asked questions

How is this list of the most popular universities compiled?

Rascasse aggregates anonymized search-behavior signals across South Africa and ranks each university by its estimated audience size. Only entries with at least 5 measured entities are listed.

How often is the list updated?

The ranking is refreshed weekly from the latest search-behavior data and re-published as a static page.

What is the largest university in South Africa?

University of the Witwatersrand currently leads with an estimated audience of 728k people in South Africa.

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