The annual general household survey (GHS) showed a “better” South Africa in 2004 compared with 2002 according to a host of measures such as access to safe water, cellphone usage and education, based on an analysis of the data compiled by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
The improvement is in part due to a record economic expansion, as in June 2005, the South African economy entered its 71st month of expansion. The current upturn started in September 1999 and some economists believe that South Africa can achieve at least 100 months of expansion as the country escapes the boom-
bust cycles that afflict other countries.
The GHS is an annual household survey conducted in July, specifically designed to measure various aspects of the living circumstances of South African households.
The key findings focus on the five broad areas covered by the GHS, namely: education, health, activities related to work and unemployment, housing and household access to services and facilities.
Information was collected about various aspects of the living conditions from members of over 30 000 households across the country. The sampled dwelling units in each of the nine provinces were visited by field staff employed and trained by Stats SA, and a GHS questionnaire was completed through face-to-face
interviews.
In total, the questionnaire contained 176 questions in 2004, 162 in 2003 and 156 in 2002.
Among scholars aged seven to 15 years, attendance rates rose from 96,3% in 2002 to 97,8% in 2004.
Among persons aged 20 years and older, the percentage that had completed matriculation rose from 21,1% in 2002 to 23,4% in 2004.
The GHS showed that there was a declining percentage of persons who said that health services were too expensive. The percentage declined from 31,3% in 2002 to 21% in 2004.
Among persons that were employed in July 2004, the percentage in the three most senior occupation categories combined (managers, professionals, semi-professionals and technicians, regarded here as “more skilled”) was 22,4% in 2004, compared to 22% in 2003 and 21,6% in 2002.
Old age pensions and disability grants together provide an increasingly important source of financial support to household members that are not employed. The percentage of such persons that depended of old age/disability pensions increased steadily — from 6,8% in 2002 to 9,4% in 2004.
The total number of households in the country increased from 11,5-million in 2002 to 12,2-million in 2004, with the percentage of households owning books rising from 51,9% in 2002 to 64,6% in 2004, while the percentage of households
that had a cellphone available for their regular use increased from 35% in 2002 to 49,6% in 2004.
There has been an increase in the percentage of households who own the dwellings in which they live. For example, the percentage of households living in formal structures (on a separate stand or plot) that were fully owned by the household increased from 63,4% in 2002 to 67,4% in 2004, while the percentage of households living in traditional dwellings that were fully owned by the household rose to 93,4% in 2004 from 90,4% in 2002.
Nationally, the percentage of households that use electricity for lighting rose to 80,3% in 2004 from 75,6% in 2002.
This reflects the increasing percentage of households that were connected to the mains electricity supply over the period, and marks a shift away from more hazardous sources of energy for lighting such as paraffin and candles.
“Taken together, these positive outcomes in terms of education, health, employment and household access to services and facilities are likely to be among the factors that contributed to the improvement in the living circumstances of households and the declining percentage of adults and children that went hungry,” Pali Lehohla, the Statistician-General, concluded. – I-Net Bridge