Bloemfontein developed in a similar manner to most South African cities in terms of its informants of historic urban form as well as past and current spatial development policies. It therefore exhibits an urban form very similar to other South African cities and consequently faces the same challenges to achieve compaction as most South African urban areas. The paper ascertains the level of compactness and densification achieved in Bloemfontein against proposals for achieving compactness made by its spatial frameworks. To do this, the paper uses the 2001 and 2011 South African Population Census data to develop an index of densification, intensification and compaction using Burton