Equal opportunity and equal treatment in the labour market are at the core of decent work. Unfortunately, women in South Africa and around the world still face additional challenges that hinder them from accessing employment. Once they are in employment, appointments to decision-making positions and jobs in certain sectors, or of certain characteristics, remain elusive.   read more »

Annual consumer price inflation edged lower to 4,6% in July from 4,9% in June and 5,2% in May. The monthly increase in the consumer price index (CPI) in July was 1,1%, the highest monthly jump since July 2020 when the CPI increased by 1,3%. The primary drivers behind the monthly rise were alcoholic beverages, housing   read more »

Stats SA will deploy fieldworkers to collect data for the Pilot Census from 13 to 31 August 2021. Fieldworkers will be visiting sampled households in seven provinces namely: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West.  Fieldwork in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape will resume at a later date. The fieldworkers   read more »

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) is in the process of improving its operations through the adoption of a mixed-mode data collection model for its household survey programme.  This means that, in addition to our usual method of collecting data through face-to-face interviews, Stats SA will also use new methods such as telephonic and online collection   read more »

There is no doubt that South Africa has made significant progress towards achieving gender equality since 1956, when 20 000 women marched to the Union Buildings on 9 August in protest against the extension of Pass Laws to women. Activists rebelled against a patriarchal system designed to control women and reduce them to submissive beings   read more »

What makes Stats SA’s Financial census of municipalities report so interesting is that it provides an idea of how financially dependent municipalities are on national government. The latest data show that the share of income that municipalities generate on their own has increased slightly since 2017, but there is more to this finding than meets   read more »

Annual consumer inflation eased to 4,9% in June after recording a 30-month high of 5,2% in May. The monthly increase in the consumer price index (CPI) was 0,2%, up from 0,1% in May but lower than the 0,5% rise recorded between May and June 2020. If annual consumer inflation is recalculated with the exclusion of   read more »

The population of South Africa was estimated to be 60,14 million at mid-year 2021, an increase of about 604 281 (1,01%) since mid-year 2020. The latest Mid-year population estimates, 2021 released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), shows that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted mortality and migration in the country since the start of the pandemic   read more »

With government spending in the spotlight, new data from Stats SA provide an update on the extent and pattern of national government expenditure. The South African national government spent R1,73 trillion in 2019/20, according to the latest Financial statistics of national government report. This is 12% higher than the R1,54 trillion recorded in 2018/19. This   read more »

Jobs in the formal non-agricultural sector decreased by 9 000 in the first quarter of 2021, bringing the total number of persons employed in the formal non-agricultural sector in South Africa to approximately 9,64 million. Year-on-year figures from the Quarterly Employment Statistics (QES, Q1:2021) survey, released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), show that formal   read more »