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In today's blog we take a look at the average time it takes for employees to get to their respective jobs. Based on data from Statistics South Africa's General Household Survey (GHS) released on 2 June 2016, we take a look at just how long it takes employees to get to work. We also investigate whether there are substantial differences between the various provinces in South Africa.
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Gauteng
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Western Cape
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We start off by taking a look at the economic powerhouse of South Africa, Gauteng. The gauge graph below shows five different time groups, and the percentage of employees that falls into each of these categories.
Gauteng has the highest proportion of employees out of all the provinces for two categories namely 31-60min and 61-90min, with 35.4% and 8.6% of employees in these respective categories. Proof of overcrowded roads in Gauteng leading to endless traffic headaches for Gauteng commuters |
From the gauge below its clear that Capetonians and the rest of Western Cape spend a lot less time getting to work than the average Gautenger. With 26.1% of employees in Western Cape, getting to the office in less than 15minutes, while only 16% of Gautengers can say the same.
Perhaps public transport is better in Western Cape, or people do not stay as far away from their workplace as they do in Gauteng. |
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Eastern Cape
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Northern Cape
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Eastern Cape has the highest proportion of employees traveling between 15-30min to the office, with more than 55% of employees stating it takes them between 15 and 30min to get to work. Eastern Cape also has the 2nd lowest proportion of employees that said it took them more than 90min to get to work.
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Northern Cape has the highest proportion of employees taking less than 15min to get to the office. Guess there is some benefit to staying and working in a sparsely populated area. No traffic. As we showed with our population density map, Northern Cape is very sparsely populated.
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Free State
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KwaZulu-Natal
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Free State has the 2nd highest (after Northern Cape) proportion of employees that said it takes them less than 15min to get to work. Guess lots of farm workers doesn't have to travel far to get to their work place
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KwaZulu-Natal has the 2nd highest (after Eastern Cape) proportion of employees that said they take between 15 to 30min to get to work. They also have the 2nd highest (after Gauteng) proportion of employees that said it takes between 31 and 60min to get to the office
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North West
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Mpumalanga
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Roughly 43% of employees in North West said it took them between 15 and 30min to get to the office. Mine workers in hostels close to the mines?
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In Mpumalanga 6.2% of the employees said it takes them between 61-90min to get to the office (this is the third highest in the country, after Gauteng and Western Cape).
Mpumalanga sadly has the highest proportion of employees that said it took them more than 90min to get to the office. Perhaps pothole riddled roads caused by trucks carrying coal in the province is contributing towards this? |
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Limpopo
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In Limpopo 42.9% of the employees said it takes them between 15-30min to get to the office (this is the third highest in the country, after Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal).
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What is very interesting to note is that the three biggest provinces in terms of economic size (Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape ) all follow similar patterns. The pattern for these three provinces are consistent where the 15-30min has the highest proportion of employees, the second highest proportion falls within 31-60min and the third highest proportion in the less than 15min category.
Another interesting observation is that in ALL provinces the highest proportion of employees are found in the 15-30min category. Perhaps an indication that not enough people stay in the economic hubs/inner cities, but rather on the outskirts of such hubs. Maybe this is why local municipalities are driving urban renewal projects to lure people to the city centers and economic hubs, in order to stop urban sprawl and to cut back commuter times?
Another interesting observation is that in ALL provinces the highest proportion of employees are found in the 15-30min category. Perhaps an indication that not enough people stay in the economic hubs/inner cities, but rather on the outskirts of such hubs. Maybe this is why local municipalities are driving urban renewal projects to lure people to the city centers and economic hubs, in order to stop urban sprawl and to cut back commuter times?