South Africa's poverty rate falls but educated workers increasingly affected
About 23-million people live below the poverty line despite an 8.8-percentage-point drop since 2015.
South Africa's poverty rate falls but educated workers increasingly affected
About 23-million people live below the poverty line despite an 8.8-percentage-point drop since 2015.
About 23-million South Africans, or 37.9% of the population, were living below the lower-bound poverty line of R1,300 per person per month in 2023, according to poverty trends released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday12. The figure represented a decline from 46.7% in 2015, a reduction of 8.8 percentage points over the period1.
The data revealed an unusual trend among educated South Africans. Poverty among adults with higher education increased from 6% in 2015 to 7.4% in 2023, making it the only educational category to record an increase23. Chief director for poverty and inequality statistics Patricia Koka said poverty had "continued to decline across all educational levels, except for a slight increase among those with higher education"23. The share of people with higher education within the total poverty population also grew from 2.1% to 3.9% over the same period2.
Poverty levels declined across all age groups between 2015 and 2023, with the largest drop of 11.9 percentage points recorded among people aged 65 and older1. However, children remained heavily affected, with 62.1% of those under 17 living in poverty4. Black South Africans comprised 93.6% of the poor population, while women accounted for 53.6%3.
Provincially, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga recorded the largest poverty declines1. Gauteng was the only province to see an increase, rising slightly from 26.3% in 2015 to 26.5% in 2023, though it remained below the national average13.
Chief director for labour statistics Desiree Manamela said South Africa's official unemployment rate stood at 31.4%, but broader measures of labour underutilisation exceeded 40%1. She noted the job market was failing young people who had pursued education3.
The food poverty line, representing the minimum cost for survival, was set at R777 per month1, later updated to R8554. The child support grant of R580 fell below this threshold4.