By Ebi Kesiena
According to the latest Stats SA General Household Survey, 23% of households in South Africa depend on social grants as their main source of income, an increase from 20% in 2019.
As the increase in social grant dependency can be attributed to the COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grant.
The survey highlights a steady rise in the number of households relying on salaries as their primary income source after a significant drop in 2020.
It also reveals that 83% of households in metropolitan areas live in formal dwellings, with 16% residing in informal settings, particularly in Cape Town, and Johannesburg.
Gauteng and the Western Cape have the highest rates of rented housing, while KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the Northern Cape, and Limpopo have the highest rates of homeownership.
Throwing more light to the survey, Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said “slightly more than four-fifths, or 83.5%, of South African households lived in formal dwellings as of 2023. The Eastern Cape had the lowest rate at 77.7%, while Limpopo had the highest at 95.1%.”
The survey also found that salaries and social grants are the most common income sources in the country. In 2023, 54.8% of households relied on salaries, wages, and commissions, up from 50.8% in 2020.
“Households that considered their main source of income, increased sharply in 2020. Mainly due to a larger intake of COVID-19 social relief distress grants. And of course, have since declined and we can see that looking at where we were in COVID-19, 2020 at household level, we see the second line from the top in 2020 and it’s starting to decline.” He said.
Additionally, the survey noted a slight drop in medical aid coverage between 2002 and 2023, with the highest coverage rates found in the Western Cape and Gauteng.
