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.
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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)
