The Gauteng City-Region Review 2011 provides an overview of the key dynamics and trends affecting the economy, society, governance and environment of a city-region that is predicted to be the twelfth largest in the world by 2015.

This review of the Gauteng city-region (GCR) aims to contribute to ideas around building an integrated and globally competitive city-region which provides more equal opportunities and a better quality of life for all its residents. It is intended as both an information base and a platform for debate for all stakeholders in the region – government, business, academics and residents – around how to build on the region’s advantages and address its challenges, including rapid urbanisation and migration, poverty, and unequal distribution of wealth.

The Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) has produced this review in the form of an interactive resource, that can be accessed either online or in the form of a compact-disk. The review consists of image- and map-rich representations of the considerable datasets and information the GCRO has collected and produced on the GCR.

To communicate the data and analysis in an interesting and appealing way, the information has been divided into a number of theme areas, which can be accessed by clicking on the ‘themes’ button below. Users can explore each of the themes page by page by navigating through the headings on the left. They can also print the entire theme as a .pdf file by clicking on the icon in the top right corner.

The ‘afropolitan’ button will lead users to a snapshot of images, as well as to observations about what people love about the city-region. This is intended to be a fun, visually appealing look into the vibrancy and diversity that characterise the region.