2021 Local Election Factsheet: Poverty in South Africa

Poverty is one of the key issues political parties are addressing ahead of the municipal elections, set to take place on November 1. Citizens will elect representatives for district, metropolitan and local municipal councils across the country’s nine provinces.

“The only thing that can lift millions of South Africans out of crippling poverty is the kind of economic activity that brings millions of jobs,” argues the Democratic Alliance in its election manifesto.

How is poverty defined in South Africa? And how many people are considered poor? We answer these questions and more.

1. How is poverty measured?

Poverty lines are official thresholds below which people are considered poor, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).

The three poverty lines ‘capture different degrees of poverty and allow the country to measure and monitor poverty at different levels’, says Stats SA.

The food poverty line is the amount of money a person needs to get the minimum required daily nutrition. This is around 2 100 calories per day. In 2021, this amount was set at R624 per person per month.

The lower-bound poverty line includes non-food household items. People at this level would need to ‘sacrifice food in order to obtain these’. In 2021, it was set at R890 per person per month.

The upper-bound poverty line includes both adequate food and non-food household items, such as shelter, clothing and transportation. In 2021, it was set at R1 335 per person per month.

2. How many people live in poverty?

The latest data from Stats SA showed that 30.4 million South Africans fell under the upper-bound poverty line in 2015. This represented 55.5% of the population.

This was a decrease from the 31.6 million people who fell under the upper-bound poverty line in 2006. Of those in poverty in South Africa in 2015, almost 13.5 million people fell under the food poverty line.

3. Who is most affected by poverty in South Africa?

Race is a strong indicator of the likelihood that someone lives in poverty. In 2015, 64.2% of black people lived below the upper-bound poverty line. In comparison, 41.3% of coloured people, 5.9% of Indian or Asian people and 1% of white people did.

Poverty also varies in the country by location. The Eastern Cape had the highest share of poor residents, at 72.9%. Limpopo was marginally lower, at 72.4%. Gauteng had the lowest share of poor residents, at 33.3%.

In 2015, 79.2% of South African adults with no education lived in poverty. In comparison, 35.6% of adults with only a matric qualification lived in poverty. The figure was just 8.4% for adults with education beyond high school.

More South African children than any other age group are poor. The data shows that poverty is highest for the age group from birth–17. In 2015, 66.8% of children lived in poverty, up from 63.7% in 2011. The age group with the lowest levels of poverty were people aged 45–54, at 42.2%.

Also see: 2021 Local Election Factsheet: Jobs in South Africa

Also see: 2021 Local Election Factsheet: Electricity in South Africa

Also see: 2021 Local Election Factsheet: Water in South Africa