Stats SA: over 30.4m South Africans live below poverty line

Statistics South Africa is today publishing its second poverty trends report, shedding light on the country’s wealth brackets.

It’s also posting snippets of the report to Twitter, allowing a larger portion of South Africans to access and absorb the figures.

Notably, the first report was published in 2014, with the country outlining three distinct poverty lines a year later.

These three include the food-poverty line — the “absolute deprivation” threshold which marks the cash required to purchase the minimum daily energy intake — and the lower-bound poverty line — the point at which people are forced to “choose between food and important non-food items”.

3 different poverty lines used to measure & monitor #poverty in SA. Upper-Bound Poverty Line=R992pp/m #StatsSA https://t.co/6toE3rtGiY pic.twitter.com/StSk0gTedL

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

The highlighted stats though concern the upper poverty line.

55.5% of South Africans living below this line can’t afford the minimum lifestyle desired by most South Africans, explains Stats SA.

This translates into 30.4-million people.

Despite the general decline in #poverty between 2006 and 2011, poverty levels in SA rose in 2015 https://t.co/6toE3rtGiY pic.twitter.com/SlOglPlvPx

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

Stats SA suggests that all three lines have risen slightly since 2011 — suggesting that there were more poor South Africans living in 2015 than 2011 — but have fallen dramatically since 2006.

Over 30,4 million South Africans were living in #poverty in 2015 #StatsSA https://t.co/6toE3rtGiY pic.twitter.com/ZQiVuBYKiC

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

25.2% of South Africans still live below the food-poverty line.

The organisation found other notable differences between male- and female-headed households, urban and rural dwellers and the various age brackets.

“Female-headed households remain significantly poorer than male-headed households,” Stats SA tweeted, suggesting that the incidence of poverty for female-headed households was up to 27% higher than male-headed households.

Female-headed households remain significantly poorer than male-headed households #Poverty #StatsSA https://t.co/6toE3rtGiY pic.twitter.com/vbYV0shfRq

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

Furthermore, a larger percentage of people living below the poverty line are found in South Africa’s rural areas, as opposed to its cities.

2 out of every 5 urban dweller are poor compared to 4 out of every 5 in rural areas #poverty #StatsSA https://t.co/6toE3rtGiY pic.twitter.com/tdhgM13w9Q

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

Statistics also suggest that South Africa’s poorest people are also its youngest.

“3 out of every 4 poor people in SA are aged 34 or younger,” Stats SA reveals.

3 out of every 4 poor people in SA are aged 34 or younger #poverty https://t.co/oFJUccRevo pic.twitter.com/iOreFbwwiP

— Stats SA (@StatsSA) August 22, 2017

The full Stats SA Poverty Trends Report can be found here, including more snippets on Stats SA’s Twitter account here.

Feature image: Joe Ross via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)