IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

Between 2002 and 2023, the percentage of individuals who benefited from social grants increased from 12,8% to 39,4% while households that contained at least one individual who received a grant increased from 30,8% to 50,0%. These increases were mainly due to the large uptake of COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grants.

Approximately 15,7% (9,8 million individuals) of individuals had medical aid coverage in 2023. Coverage varied from 25,7% in WC to 9,5% in LP. Although 71,7% of white South Africans were members of a medical aid scheme, whites only comprised 31,7% of all medical aid members.

Although national access to mains electricity increased from 76,7% in 2002 to 89,8% in 2023, almost a quarter used wood (7,8%), LPG/Gas (6,8%), paraffin (2,5%) and other sources of electricity (4,5%) for cooking.

Almost nine in ten (87%) of households had access to piped water in the dwelling, in the yard or at a communal tap, while 83,3% had access to improved sanitation (flush toilets and VIP Pit toilets), up from 61,7% in 2002.

Almost one quarter (23,1%) of households considered their access to food as inadequate or severely inadequate, 5 percentage points higher than in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19. The need was most pervasive in NC (37,7%) and least common in LP (6,9%).