Stats SA survey: At least 42% of South African households headed by women

More than two-fifths (42.3%) of all South African households were headed by women in 2023, Statistics South Africa‘s (Stats SA) general household survey has revealed.

This amid a persisting gender pay gap in the country.

According to Stats SA, the phenomenon of women-headed households is most common in rural areas, particularly in the Eastern Cape (48.8%) and Limpopo (47.0%).

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The issue is least common in Gauteng (36.5%).

Stats SA’s general household survey, released on Thursday, tracks the progress of development and identifies persistent service delivery gaps.

“Families and households are profoundly important to the developmental, emotional and cognitive growth of children and parents and/or caregivers can play a central role in this development,” said Stats SA.

The survey found that in 2023, 19% of South African children lived with neither of their biological parents.

Less than a third (315%) of children lived with both parents, while 45.4% of children lived with their mothers. About one-eighth of children (12.3%) were orphaned, having lost one or both parents.

Although more than one-quarter (26.5%) of households consisted of a single person, 39% of households were nuclear households with parents and children.

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Two-generation households comprised 39.2% of all households, while 13.9% contained at least three generations.

Skip generation households in which grandparents lived with grandchildren comprised 4.2% of all households. Again, these were most common in the Eastern Cape (7.1%) and Limpopo (6.6%).

Stats SA: Households still depend on social grants

According to the survey, the rise of South Africa’s unemployment rate can only push South Africans towards social grants.

The grants remain a safety net for the country’s poor.

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The percentage of households and persons who benefit from a social grant have increased from 12.8% in 2003 to 30.9% in 2019.

The social grant recipients saw a sharp rise again in 2023 due to the introduction of the special Covid Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.

The percentage of households that received grants concurrently increased from 30.8% to 50%.

According to Stats SA, grants were the second-most important source of income (50.5%) for households after salaries (62.2%).

They were the main source of income for more than one-fifth (23.0%) of households nationally.

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A larger percentage of households received grants compared to salaries as a source of income in Eastern Cape (65.4% versus 51.2%), Free State (64.5% versus 55,1%), and Limpopo (61.4% versus 48.9%).

Grants were a main source of income for households in Eastern Cape (37.0%), Limpopo (33.2%) and Free State (33.0%).