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In this article we take a look at the subjective poverty report published by Statistics South Africa and highlight a few of the findings in the report.
Poverty is a complex topic and is hard to measure as poverty is not just based on monetary terms, people can have few financial means but might have access to great services free of charge, the question then is whether that person is still poor then? |
Subjective poverty
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Poverty. How is it defined and how is it measured?
The following paragraph is taken from the report to provide a bit of context for readers regarding poverty and its measurement. "Poverty is a complex concept, which may include social, economic, and political elements. Poverty is usually defined as the deprivation of the means necessary to meet basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing (Jansen et al, 2013). Income has been critical in the measure of poverty. Poverty has been commonly measured in absolute or relative monetary terms. However, there has been a lot of debate about the best approach to measure poverty because the poor themselves consider their experience of poverty much more broadly. Therefore focusing on one factor alone such as income, is not sufficient to capture the true reality of poverty. Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), over the years, has produced a number of reports based on various definitions and measures of poverty. These include objective measures, relative measures, multidimensional measures as well as subjective poverty measures. Subjective poverty as the main focus of this report is defined as the self assessed economic status of people relative to others. It can also be perceived consumption adequacy, where people can reflect on the minimum income they need to make ends meet (Posel and Rogan, 2014). "
The table below shows the current poverty lines including food poverty lines.
The table below shows the current poverty lines including food poverty lines.
The table above shows that if a person did not have R441 a month to buy food, they were defined as poor based on the food poverty line. This line shows the amount of money required to buy the bear minimum in food to survive. The actual poverty line (LBPL) is the minimum amount of money someone needs to survive in South Africa. So if a person earns less than R647 a month they are seen as poor based on the lower poverty line. The upper bound level is R992. Basically if a person earns less than R992, they are seen as poor based on the upper range of the poverty line.
The lower bound and upper bound range provides a range between which people can fall in order to be seen as poor. The graphic below provides details on subjective poverty per race.
The lower bound and upper bound range provides a range between which people can fall in order to be seen as poor. The graphic below provides details on subjective poverty per race.
Poverty per race group in South Africa
According to the graphic above 40.8% of Black/Africans saw themselves as being poor in 2015, down from 46.6% in 2009. While 18.3% of coloureds saw themselves as poor in 2015, only 4.6% of White's saw themselves as poor in 2015, and the overall average for South Africa saw 35% of South Africans seeing themselves as poor in 2015. So how about a provincial breakdown of subjective poverty? The table below shows the proportion of people per province seeing themselves as poor.
The province that recorded the lowest percentage of subjective poverty is the Western Cape, with 22.7% of people seeing themselves as poor, exactly the same percentage as recorded in 2009. The Eastern Cape sow a small decline in the number of people classifying themselves as poor dropping from 54.3% to 52.3%. Gauteng recorded the second lowest percentage of people classifying themselves as poor with 25.7% (or just over a quarter of the people in Gauteng) seeing themselves as being poor. Below a summary of the table above ranked from highest to lowest:
- Eastern Cape: 52.3%
- Limpopo: 45.5%
- North West: 41.5%
- Northern Cape: 36.5%
- Mpumalanga: 36.1%
- Free State: 35.9%
- South Africa: 35%
- KwaZulu-Natal: 33.9%
- Gauteng: 25.7%
- Western Cape: 22.7%
Iit is clear the three main economic hubs in South Africa (being Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape), recorded the lowest levels of self perceived poverty of all the provinces in South Africa, showing that even though unemployment is high in these provinces, the least amount of people saw themselves as being poor. Worryingly though is the fact that even in the lowest ranked province of the Western Cape, 1 in 5 people saw themselves as being poor. So now that we know more about self perceived poverty per race group and per province, what do the numbers look like per age group or by sex?
The table below takes a look at subjective poverty numbers by age group and sex.
The table below takes a look at subjective poverty numbers by age group and sex.
While youth unemployment is a massive problem in South Africa, when it comes to classifying themselves as poor most youths (those under the age of 35) classify themselves in very similar numbers to those over the age of 55+. Interestingly females recorded higher levels of being poor for all age categories. A reflection of the work place being dominated by males? Perhaps. Or massive pay disparities between males and females? More than likely. The highest levels of poverty per age and sex group was recorded for females over the age of 65+ with 47% classifying themselves as poor, while the lowest percentage was measured for males between the age of 35-54, with 26.6% of this group seeing themselves as being poor.
In the last table we will look at for this article, we take at the percentage of households classifying themselves as poor based on their settlement type. Do those people staying in rural areas have higher prevalences of classifying themselves as poor compared to those staying in urban formal areas? The table below answers these types of questions.
In the last table we will look at for this article, we take at the percentage of households classifying themselves as poor based on their settlement type. Do those people staying in rural areas have higher prevalences of classifying themselves as poor compared to those staying in urban formal areas? The table below answers these types of questions.
Based on the table below the settlement type that had the highest rates of self perceived poverty was that of settlements in traditional areas with 48% of people seeing themselves as poor , while this was closely followed by settlement types in urban informal areas (squatter camps and townships) with 47.1% of people seeing themselves as being poor. A quarter or 25.1% of people staying in urban formal (those staying in cities, or suburban areas) seeing themselves as being poor.
While there are vast differences in perceived poverty between different race groups, age groups, genders and settlement or housing types, one thing is abundantly clear. The levels of actual and perceived poverty in South Africa is alarmly high with the average of 35% of people in South African seeing themselves poor being extremely high. And with a poor education system, failing economic policies and slow to no economic growth and the replacement of people with machines in the work place, one wonders if these numbers will ever reach acceptable single digit figures in our life time?
While there are vast differences in perceived poverty between different race groups, age groups, genders and settlement or housing types, one thing is abundantly clear. The levels of actual and perceived poverty in South Africa is alarmly high with the average of 35% of people in South African seeing themselves poor being extremely high. And with a poor education system, failing economic policies and slow to no economic growth and the replacement of people with machines in the work place, one wonders if these numbers will ever reach acceptable single digit figures in our life time?