Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) launched the Living Conditions Survey (LCS) 2014/15 in Pretoria today. The LCS is a periodic survey which is conducted every 5 years. The survey aims to identify and profile poverty in South Africa, and gives policy-makers information on who is poor, where the poor are located and what it is   read more »

The Statistician-General (SG), Mr Pali Lehohla, gave a presentation on “Why statistics matter” at the high-level Multidimensional Poverty Peer Network (MPPN) meeting in Berlin. In his presentation, he highlighted the fact that statistics are about people, places and possibilities, not about numbers. He made reference to the properties of statistics, and how they should be   read more »

The annual inflation rate slowed to 6,3% in July from the 6,6% registered in the preceding two months. Most municipalities introduce new tariffs in July each year resulting in housing and utilities contributing 0,5 of the 0,8% monthly increase in the CPI. Electricity tariffs increased 7,0%, slightly lower than the maximum 7,4% stipulated by NERSA, the   read more »

Almost 70% of people who start an informal business do so because they are unemployed and have no alternative source of income. This was just one of the findings of the Survey of Employers and Self-Employed (SESE) released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) on Thursday. The SESE, which is conducted every 4 years, collects   read more »

South Africa’s population now stands at just over 54 million. This is the main finding of Stats SA’s latest Mid-year Population Estimates report, which was released on Thursday. Based on the 2014 series, the country’s population experienced an estimated net increase of 844 000 individuals (1,58% growth) from July 2013 to July 2014. Gauteng remains the   read more »

Capital expenditure by public sector institutions (national, provincial and local government, extra-budgetary, higher education and public sector institutions) increased by 4,8% (or R9,7 billion), from R202,8 billion in 2012 to R212,5 billion in 2013. A disaggregation of capital expenditure by type reveals increases on plant, machinery and equipment (up R10 billion from 2012), ‘other’ fixed   read more »

Annual consumer inflation for June was steady at 6,6%, with a monthly increase of 0,3%. Food and non-alcoholic beverages prices increased by a modest 0,1% between May and June resulting in an unchanged 8,8% annual rate.  Specific food items which continue to exert upward pressure on inflation are white bread (monthly increase of 1,9%) and full cream   read more »

Travel time is the factor that influenced most households’ choice of transport. This is just one of the findings of the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS), conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) in 2013 for the National Department of Transport. At a national level, 32,6% of households indicated that travel time was the primary   read more »

Mining production decreased by 6,5% year-on-year in May 2014. The largest negative growth rates were recorded for Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) (-48,5%), ‘other’ non-metallic minerals (-13,3%) and building materials (-11,7%). The main contributor to the 6,5% decrease was PGMs (contributing -10,4 percentage points). Iron ore was a significant positive contributor (contributing 3,1 percentage points). The   read more »

The South African national government expenditure surpassed R1 trillion in the 2012/13 fiscal year, almost double the R567 billion spent in 2007/08. This was a finding from Stats SA’s Financial Statistics of National Government report, an annual release containing details of national government spending. Exploring expenditure trends over the last six years, the report shows   read more »