It is difficult to quantify the issue, both in South Africa and globally. The exact number of stateless people is not known, but 4.2 million people are known to be stateless as of 2019. Globally, numbers of stateless people are not well documented and less than half of all countries (76) have reported data to UNHCR. Actual numbers of stateless populations are likely to be much higher. The Extent of Statelessness There are no statistics available on statelessness in South Africa due to a lack of established procedures to capture data on the issue. Nonetheless, there are indicative estimations of the prevalence of stateless persons or persons at risk of statelessness in the country. Just over 15 million unregistered or undocumented people in South Africa, of which almost 3 million are under the age of 18. While being unregistered or undocumented is not synonymous with being stateless, being unable to prove nationality due to a lack of documentation can place an individual at an elevated risk of statelessness.