Inner City Facts and figures Floor space: 7 million m² Office space: 3-million m² (the equivalent of 57% of available space in Durban, Cape Town & Pretoria combined) Home to large number of corporate head offices Daily commuters: 800 000 Taxis: 39.6% Bus: 24.1% Private car: 27.1% Rail: 9.2% Weekday population: 1 million Working people: 200 000 Tourist shoppers: 300 000 - 400 000 pa. Number of dwelling units: more than 40 000 Value of investment: ± R30-billion in 2.5 km² radius of core area (built investment replacement cost) Housing capital investment: ± R1.2 billion

AFTER modest beginnings as a mining town, Johannesburg has become recognised as a major world city and the economic capital of both South and sub-Saharan Africa.

The greater Johannesburg metropolis covers an area of 2 300km², making it larger than Sydney, London or New York, and similar in size to Los Angeles.

Johannesburg is home to some 3.8 million people, the majority of whom are aged between 19 and 39.

The economy of Johannesburg today reflects strongly successive waves of development and decline, which have seen the city move away from mining and industry towards an economy fundamentally based on services and trade as well as some high-value manufacturing, which is in line with global trends.

This should be viewed as extremely positive but for the fact that the skills mismatch this trend has created has not been adequately managed to date.

The fact that Johannesburg's economic activity is in line with international trends is extremely significant as it has been demonstrated that local demand, which has all but stagnated, is unable to provide sufficient momentum to enable the city to grow at a required rate of some 6% per annum. As such, Johannesburg's economy will need to rely strongly on external demand from foreign countries.

Employment by sector

Joburg by numbers

Johannesburg is one of the youngest major cities in the world, it was founded in 1886.

In the space of a century, the city has been rebuilt four times: first it was a tented camp, then a town of tin shanties, then of four-storey Edwardian brick buildings, then a city of modern skyscrapers.

Johannesburg houses the tallest office block in Africa, the Carlton Centre (50 storeys) and the tallest tower, the Hillbrow Tower (270m, or 90 storeys).

Johannesburg is nicknamed "Egoli", which means "place of gold". Forty percent of the world's gold has been found in the Witwatersrand, the reef on which the city was built.

The altitude is 2 000m above sea level. Because Johannesburg's air is thinner than that at the coast eggs take an extra minute to boil at this altitude.

There are 10 million trees in Johannesburg.

The city enjoys an average of 12 hours of sunlight a day.

Forty percent of the population is under the age of 24.

There are 180 000 street lights.

There are 1 780 traffic lights.

There are 35 cemeteries, which cover 626ha.

Johannesburg has 7 519km of roads.

There are 550 buses, which operate on 80 routes and transport about 20-million passengers each year.

There are 100 water towers and reservoirs.

There are 8 000km of water pipes.

There are 8 149km of sewerage pipes.

The city has two active power stations, capable of generating 600mw (megawatts).

The average travel time for commuters is 72 minutes.

There are 17 nature reserves in the city.

There are 12 river systems that run throughout the city.

An amazing 40% of all the world's human ancestor fossils have been found in areas close to Johannesburg.

Johannesburg has about 150 heritage sites, half of which are national monuments.

Johannesburg houses the only two polar bears in Africa, at the Johannesburg Zoo.

There are 63ha of bird sanctuaries in and around Johannesburg.

There are 1 000ha of green space in and around Johannesburg. The Botanical Gardens in Emmarentia are 81ha.

There are 106 dams.

There are 394 public sports facilities.

There are 98 public recreation centres.

There are 59 public swimming pools.

There are 126 community health clinics and 10 environmental health clinics.

The city collects 1,8-million tons of garbage each year. Of this, 244 200 tons is in the form of illegal dumping, and 1 779 tons is litter from the streets.

Ninety percent of the city's people have to walk less than 1km to access their modes of transport.

(Source: Integrated Development Plan)