Two thirds of South African Households Are Poor

Statistics South Africa released it’s annual report titled “Selected development indicators” yesterday, 3 May 2011. The report provides important data on government performance on its programmes. One of the most important descriptors is an attempt to measure the extent of poverty in South Africa. The report defines the poor as households with a monthly expenditure of R 2500-00 of below. This measure shows that two-thirds of South African’s households are poor.
Based on the data available, the calculations for each province was undertaken, which shows variances across the provinces. These are represented in the table below:

Indicators	Total Number of Households	Number of households classified as poor using household monthly expenditure of below R2500-00 as the cut-off	% of households with monthly expenditure below R 2500-00
Western Cape	1581	732	46.3
Gauteng	3826	1977	51.7
South Africa	14756	9788	66.3
Free State	907	616	67.9
North West	1006	709	70.5
Northern Cape	327	231	70.6
Mpuma-langa	1050	753	71.7
KwaZulu-Natal	2802	2065	73.7
Eastern Cape	1820	1430	78.6
Limpopo	1437	1275	88.7

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The data shows the urban-rural split for poverty:

• Urbanised provinces, such as the Western Cape (46.3%)  and Gauteng (51.7%), have a lower incidence of poverty compared to other provinces;
• Provinces with the highest incidence of poverty are Limpopo (88.6%), Eastern Cape (78.6%) and KwaZulu-Natal (77.3%).

This estimate of poverty it must be remembered is based on households, not individuals (which is the more commonly used measure in South Africa). Comparisons between poverty rates by households and by individuals are difficult to make, as they measure two different things. Yet, the finding that two-thirds of households survive on less that R 2 500-00, shows how commonplace poverty is South Africa, and the scale of the problem that we need to address.
The percentage of households surviving under R 2 500-00 in each province is shown in the chart below. Mouse over to view the data: