IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

The SPWQ measure recorded the least incidence of poverty of the three indicators with 26,3% of households who perceived themselves as poor. The IEQ measure reported the second highest incidence of poverty with 46,7% of households identified as living in poverty. Meanwhile, the MIQ measure yielded the highest subjective poverty rate with more than half of South African households (57,0%) being classified as poor. Based on these estimates, it appears that poverty levels increase when it is measured as the perceived inability to earn enough income to ‘make ends meet’.

Black African-headed households had the highest levels of subjective poverty across the poverty measures with the exception of the MIQ indicator where white-headed households had the highest levels. According to the SPWQ indicator, 30,5% of black African households perceived themselves as poor, while 57,4% reported a per capita household income not exceeding their desired minimum income required to meet the household’s needs. Additionally, 50,6% of black African households indicated that their total monthly income was lower than the minimum income required for the household to make ends meet.