Using aggregated and anonymised data from the period of Tuesday, 1 January to Monday, 22 April, the findings reveal:
  • Election-related topics peaked over various times throughout the four months, with Saturday 26 January and Saturday, 2 February seeing a peak with 'Education' as the most discussed topic of the day, followed by the 'Economy' on Thursday, 7 February, 'Corruption' on Wednesday, 20 March and the 'Economy' on Thursday, 11 April.
  • 'Education' is the most talked about topic (in comments and posts) this election cycle — mentioned by 65% of people, followed by the 'Economy' at 61%, 'Security' at 47% and 'Labour Issues' at 46%.
  • Women are more likely to be involved in conversations around the elections, with 52% of women compared to 48% of men. However, men are more engaged with 57% of the interactions (posts and comments) compared to that of women at 43%.
  • 25 to 34-year-olds are driving the conversation, with youths in general (18 to 34-year-olds) much more engaged with election-related content than those from 35 years and above.
  • The distribution of election conversations by provinces sees people living in Gauteng discussing election-related subjects the most on Facebook.
Facebook measured Facebook conversation including posts, comments, shares, likes and reactions related to the elections, with all data aggregated and de-personalised. Conversations were identified based on keywords and combinations of keywords that were associated with discussions around the election.

All data is aggregated and anonymised.

Percentages add up to more than 100% as people can mention more than one topic in a single post or comment.