South Africans are earning more. Much more. Total income has more than doubled in the past seven years. This phenomenal growth is eclipsed only by the growth of the black middle class, which has grown at an even faster rate.
Black consumers now account for 46,5% of personal disposable income, compared with 40,4% for whites. This percentage is set to rise in the next five years, according to the latest All Media Products Survey (Amps) conducted by the South African Advertising Research Foundation.
The survey randomly selects a representative sample of 24 000 people from around the country. This year’s survey compared fieldwork conducted between February and June last year with the same period this year.
Total personal income for all race groups was calculated at R31,1-billion in 2000. By 2006/07 this had grown to R66,7billion. In the same period black income rose from R13,2-billion (42,6%) to R34,7-billion (52,1%) of the total. White income grew from R14-billion (45%) of the total to R23,4-billion (35,2%). While average household income in 1994 was calculated at R2 435, by this year it had grown to R5 319.
Over 13 months the black middle class grew by 30%, from two million to 2,6-million people, according to a study by the University of Cape Town’s Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing and TNS Research Surveys. The survey found spending power had grown from R130-billion to R180-billion, while white spending power grew from R230-billion to R235-billion.
The number of black senior managers grew from 8 766 in 1997 to 28 658 last year; the number of white top managers declined from 30 876 to 22 758 in the same period, according to several sources, including the Labour Department, general household surveys, public service commission reports and Statistics SA. In the past two years black average household income rose 15% from R2 664 to R3 474. The average household income of whites, coloureds and Indians rose 5% over this time from R9 395 to R10 963.
The Amps survey found that unemployment declined between 2004 and this year. The number of respondents who said they were not working at all (for various reasons) declined from 64% to 61%, while the number of unemployed dropped from 33% to 30%. But only 28% of respondents this year said they were employed full time, up from 23% in 2004.
All this wealth generation has resulted in a more comfortable existence for South Africans. The proportion of homes with electricity grew from 64,7% in 1996 to 86% this year. While 35% of black consumers had cellphones two years ago, now that figure is 51,7% . The proportion of whites, coloureds and Indians with cellphones increased from 60,9% to 70,5% over the same period. In total the number of South Africans with cellphones has jumped from 41,5% to 56,3% in the past two years.
Nearly half (49,2%) of the respondents have a bank account — an 8% jump from 45,6% two years ago. While 23,7% of people had insurance two years ago, now 26,4% do, an increase of 12%. Just more than 7% had logged on to the internet in the past month, up from 6,4% previously. Just 4,2% of the sample owned a digital camera in 2005, but now 5,7% do, a rise of 37%. And although 7,7% had bought a “durable item on credit” in the past 12 months in the 2005 survey, this dropped 5% to 7,3% in this year’s survey.
Household appliances
TV: 77% of households
Fridge: 70%
Hi-fi: 62%
Electric stove: 54%
Microwave: 42%
Video recorder: 24%
Electric hotplate: 29%
Deep freeze: 19%
Vacuum: 17%
DVD player: 40%
What South Africans are consuming
What we’re reading and watching
The Daily Sun is far and away the largest daily paper with 13,9% of readership (from 9,8% two years ago), but the Sunday Times isn’t far behind. It grabbed 11,4% of readership in the weekly newspaper market, from 10,6% two years ago, closely tracked by the Sunday Sun, at 8,1% from 6,2% previously.
Business Day, however, boasts the richest readers, with an average household income of R20 159. As for the Mail & Guardian, we captured 1,2% of the weekly newspaper market and our readers’ average household income is R13 392.
Among male readers, Car magazine is the most popular, with 2,8% of readers, closely followed by Men’s Health with 2,6% of readers. Female readers can’t get enough of True Love with 6,5% of the market. Soccer mags Kickoff (5,4%), Amakhosi (3,6%) and SoccerLife (2% of readers) dominate the sports magazine market.
In the general Afrikaans category, Huisgenoot grabs 6,6% of readers. But another 2,5% choose to read Dish/Skottel (the DStv guide). In the general English category, the Sunday Times Magazine reached 7,6% of readers. You magazine reached 6,2% of readers.
On the box, SABC1 attracted 51,6% of viewers, e.tv 36,8%, SABC2 36,3% and SABC3 23,8%. M-Net’s main service pulled in 4,5% of viewers and 6,7% watched DStv. Metro FM is still the biggest radio station with 15,1% of listeners, followed by Lesedi FM with 11,5% of listeners. Up from 16,8% two years ago, 17,5% of adults had been to the cinema in the past year.
What we’re buying and doing
About 41% of adults have enjoyed a tipple in the past seven days, with 22,7% of all adults (or 55% of imbibers) drinking beer. Carling Black Label is our most popular brand with 38,3% choosing this brand. Energade is the most popular sports drink, liked by 56,9% of consumers who consume sports drinks. A quarter of adults said they had drunk a sports beverage in the past week.
Soccer is still our favourite spectator sport, enjoyed by 61% of men and 31% of women. But only 23% of men and 3% of women actually play the beautiful game. In fact, we’re not really into exercise, with 49% of men and 68% of women not exercising at all. The top physical activity for women is walking or hiking, with 7% participating. After soccer, another 12% of men play pool or snooker.
Our favourite music is gospel — listened to by 59% of under-35s and 67% of over-35s — and kwaito, enjoyed by 45% of under-35s and 14% of over-35s.