The Bluff was designated as a White area (with a population of approximately 21,750 in 1994) of many civil servants, railroad workers, retirees, skilled blue-collar workers and their families. Although affluent, well-housed, and well-serviced in comparison to its non-White neighbours, residents in the Bluff sometimes called their community the "Cinderella suburb" of Durban, receiving fewer facilities and services than other White communities and therefore suffering from artificially low property values. The Bluff includes Brighton Beach, Fynnlands, Grosvenor, Ocean View, and those areas of Wentworth historically designated for Whites.

Among the Bluff households, there is a significant working class population (one-fourth are artisans, apprentices, and related), more than a quarter have not completed high school, and one-fourth earned less than R 2000 in 1990. There is a significant minority - probably 10% - who are professionals, semi-professionals, managers, executives, and administrators, usually living on the seaward bluff. Approximately one-third of Bluff residents in 1990 were Afrikaans-speakers.

In recent years, a number of Indian and Coloured people from nearby communities have moved into formerly all-White neighbourhoods on the Bluff.

Although the Bluff is not as proximate to industry as Merebank and Wentworth, its residents complain about having to approach the suburb from the Southern Freeway through a commercial/industrial zone adjacent to the railroad marshalling yards. The prevailing winds frequently carry to the Bluff significant amounts of air pollution, soot, and even oil spray from the refinery and ash dust from the Mondi plant. Noise and odorous pollution also reaches the Bluff from harbour industries, such as the Kingsrest tanker wash-out site and oil storage tanks.

The Bluff community has given leadership and support to preserving and developing the natural treasures of the coastal and bluff zone, such as the ecologically-diverse Treasure Beach.

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