IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

 MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                        01 November 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Stats SA will commence with data collection operations for the country’s fifth large-scale Income & Expenditure Survey (IES) 2022/23 on Monday, 7 November 2022. The year-long data collection phase will run until the end of November 2023.  The IES 2022/23 is a household-based sample survey specifically designed to collect detailed household income and expenditure information needed to measure and profile poverty and inequality in the country.

The data collected from the survey is essential in providing evidence-based information for monitoring progress on the National Development Plan’s (NDPs) twin targets of reducing the (1) Gini coefficient to 0,60 (measured at 0,65 in 2015) and the (2) population living below the lower-bound poverty line (LBPL) to 0% (measured at 40,0% in 2015) by 2030.

The IES is also a critical data input for the consumer price index (CPI).  Stats SA will use the results of the IES 2022/23 to update the CPI basket of goods and services, as well as the basket’s weights to ensure that the CPI reflects the most recent information on consumer spending patterns. These changes will be implemented in the January 2025 CPI release (to be published in February 2025). The index reference (base) period will be reset to December 2024 =100.

The IES 2022/23 will collect information from approximately 32 000 households across all nine provinces.  Sampled households will participate in the survey for a period of six weeks during which they will complete a household questionnaire (over four separate weekly visits) and be asked to keep a diary that records their expenditures and acquisitions over a two-week period (Stats SA will provide households with diaries for capturing this information).

Given the multidimensional nature of poverty, in addition to the household questionnaire’s core set of money-metric questions, the survey also covers a range of topics including health, education, living conditions, employment, housing, food security, and transportation.  This allows the survey to generate multidimensional and subjective poverty measures alongside the production of money-metric indicators such as the poverty headcount, poverty gap, and severity of poverty.

The poverty and inequality outputs from the survey will be published in a series of reports and releases between 2024 and 2026.  These include the Poverty Trends Report (Report No. 03-10-06) and Inequality Trends Report (Report No. 03-10-19).

The Statistics Act (Act 6 of 1999) and the Protection of Personal Information Act (Act 4 of 2013) complement each other in ensuring that all data collected by Stats SA remains fully confidential; any data published by Stats SA is aggregated to ensure anonymity.  The information on any specific individual or household that participated in the survey cannot be shared with other government agencies (including the South African Revenue Service and South African Police Service) to ensure that households feel comfortable providing an accurate and complete picture of their finances.  In particular, income is often under-reported by many respondents out of a misplaced fear that it may carry new tax implications should they share information.

Stats SA field staff can be identified through their Stats SA ID cards, caps and bibs that they will be wearing when visiting households. Furthermore, they can be verified through the fieldworker verification webpage on the Stats SA website and/or by contacting the Stats SA Call Centre on 012 310 8600.

We are appealing to sampled households to cooperate with our field staff by making time to respond to the questionnaire.

Ends//

For technical enquiries contact:

Mr Werner Ruch

Project Director: IES 2022/23

Cell: 082 906 7957

Email: WernerR@statssa.gov.za

For media enquires contact:

Ms Felicia Sithole

Cell: 076 430 0693

Landline: 012 339 2407

Email: FeliciaS@statssa.gov.za