Gendered trends in poverty in the post-apartheid period, 1997–2006

Figures & data

Table 1: Households without earnings or social grants, 1997–2006

	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006
Zero earnings + zero social grants
Number	6 972	6 273	4 449	4 031
Percentage	23.39	24.00	16.97	14.40
Including household expenditure
Number	566	1 033	350	167
Percentage	1.90	3.95	1.34	0.60
Real per capita monthly household expenditure (2000 prices)	412.68 (19.89)	351.98 (13.56)	585.77 (23.03)	559.42 (23.34)
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 1999, 2004, 2006); own calculations. Notes: No-income households are households that receive neither earnings nor social grants. Real per capita expenditure is only for households with no earnings or social grant income. The data in the last row of the table are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets.

Table 2: Poverty estimates for South Africa, 1997–2006 (per capita)

	Headcount (α = 0)
	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006	Relative change 1997–2006
Earnings only (I)
All	65.33 (0.595)	68.08* (0.606)	68.87 (0.655)	64.26* (1.89)	–1.64%
Male	62.73 (0.619)	65.61* (0.628)	65.96 (0.698)	60.77* (1.93)	–3.12%
Female	67.74 (0.595)	70.41* (0.619)	71.69 (0.660)	67.67* (1.88)	–0.10%
Earnings + social grants (II)
All	62.46 (0.604)	66.26* (0.609)	65.25 (0.665)	59.07* (1.81)	–5.43%
Male	59.97 (0.624)	63.94* (0.629)	62.37* (0.705)	55.70* (1.81)	–7.12%
Female	64.78 (0.609)	68.43* (0.626)	68.05 (0.674)	62.36* (1.83)	–3.74%
Including household expenditure (III)
All	59.51 (0.639)	63.62* (0.645)	61.60* (0.718)	55.96* (2.01)	–5.97%
Male	57.11 (0.655)	61.32* (0.663)	58.40* (0.750)	52.28* (1.99)	–8.46%
Female	61.75 (0.647)	65.78* (0.662)	64.70 (0.732)	59.55* (2.03)	–3.56%
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 1999, 2004, 2006); own calculations. Notes: *Denotes a significant change in the poverty estimate from the previous year at the 95% level of confidence. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets. The poverty line is R322 per capita per month in 2000 prices. Household well-being is estimated as average per capita total household monthly income.

Figure 1: Cumulative distribution function of real monthly per capita household income by gender, 1997 and 2006 Notes.

Table 3: The poverty gap, 1997–2006

	Poverty gap (α = 1)
	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006	Relative change 1997–2006
Earnings only (I)
All	0.53 (0.006)	0.56* (0.006)	0.58* (0.006)	0.53* (0.019)	0.00%
Male	0.50 (0.006)	0.54* (0.006)	0.55 (0.007)	0.50* (0.019)	0.00%
Female	0.55 (0.006)	0.58* (0.006)	0.60* (0.007)	0.56* (0.019)	0.02%
Earnings + social grants (II)
All	0.44 (0.005)	0.49* (0.005)	0.42* (0.005)	0.36* (0.011)	–18.18%
Male	0.42 (0.005)	0.47* (0.005)	0.41* (0.005)	0.35* (0.012)	–16.67%
Female	0.46 (0.005)	0.50* (0.006)	0.43* (0.005)	0.38* (0.011)	–17.39%
Including household expenditure (III)
All	0.36 (0.005)	0.41* (0.005)	0.36* (0.005)	0.31* (0.013)	–13.89%
Male	0.34 (0.005)	0.39* (0.005)	0.34* (0.005)	0.29* (0.013)	–14.71%
Female	0.37 (0.005)	0.42* (0.005)	0.37* (0.005)	0.33* (0.013)	–10.81%
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 1999, 2004, 2006); own calculations. Notes: *Denotes a significant change in the poverty estimate from the previous year at the 95% level of confidence. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets.

Table 4: Relative contribution of income sources to reducing poverty

	All		Female		Male
	1997	2006	1997	2006	1997	2006
Headcount ratio ( α = 0)
Earned income	0.88	0.84	0.86	0.83	0.88	0.85
Grant income	0.05	0.09	0.06	0.10	0.05	0.08
Other income	0.07	0.07	0.08	0.07	0.07	0.07
Total	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Poverty gap ratio ( α = 1)
Earned income	0.71	0.66	0.69	0.64	0.73	0.68
Grant income	0.16	0.26	0.17	0.29	0.15	0.23
Other income	0.13	0.08	0.14	0.07	0.12	0.08
Total	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 2006); own calculations using the DASP module developed by Araar & Duclos (2007). Note: The data are weighted.

Table 5: Male- and female-headed households, 1997–2006

	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006
Male-headed	5 981 957 (35 144)	6 647 800 (43 464)	7 664 456 (65 833)	8 073 892 (82 953)
Female-headed	3 244 538 (25 996)	3 735 295 (35 973)	4 520 349 (49 458)	4 858 648 (57 856)
Percentage female-headed	35.17 (0.294)	35.96 (0.335)	37.07 (0.383)	37.48 (0.418)
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 1999, 2004, 2006); own calculations. Notes: The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets.

Table 6: Poverty estimates among households (measure III), by household type, 1997–2006

	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006	Relative change 1997–2006
Headcount ( α = 0)
All households	48.63 (0.652)	50.88* (0.643)	48.23* (0.718)	43.59* (1.81)	–10.36%
Male-headed	38.84 (0.663)	41.69* (0.660)	37.24* (0.739)	32.54* (1.54)	–16.22%
Female-headed	66.68 (0.772)	67.24* (0.789)	66.88 (0.794)	61.98* (1.88)	–7.05%
Poverty gap ( α = 1)
All households	0.28 (0.004)	0.30* (0.004)	0.27* (0.005)	0.23* (0.010)	–17.86%
Male-headed	0.21 (0.004)	0.24* (0.004)	0.20* (0.004)	0.16* (0.008)	–23.81%
Female-headed	0.40 (0.005)	0.41* (0.004)	0.38* (0.006)	0.34* (0.012)	15.00%
Sources: Stats SA (1997, 1999, 2004, 2006); own calculations. Note: *Denotes a significant change in the poverty estimate from the previous year at the 95% level of confidence. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets.

Table 7: Relative contribution of income sources to reducing poverty

	All		Female-headed		Male-headed
	1997	2006	1997	2006	1997	2006
Headcount ratio ( α = 0)
Earned income	0.83	0.80	0.71	0.72	0.86	0.83
Grant income	0.06	0.10	0.12	0.16	0.05	0.08
Other income	0.11	0.10	0.17	0.12	0.09	0.09
Total	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Poverty gap ratio ( α = 1)
Earned income	0.70	0.67	0.51	0.52	0.78	0.74
Grant income	0.14	0.21	0.24	0.35	0.11	0.15
Other income	0.16	0.12	0.25	0.12	0.11	0.11
Total	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Source: Stats SA (1997, 2006); own calculations using the DASP module developed by Araar & Duclos (2007). Note: The data are weighted.

Table 8: Including other sources of income: Poverty estimates in 1997

	Measure III	Measure IV
Headcount (P 0 )
All individuals	59.51 (0.639)	60.21 (0.616)
Male	57.11 (0.655)	57.90 (0.633)
Female	61.75 (0.647)	62.36 (0.624)
All households	48.63 (0.652)	50.67* (0.620)
Male-headed	38.84 (0.663)	41.34* (0.647)
Female-headed	66.68 (0.773)	67.89 (0.719)
Poverty gap (P 1 )
All individuals	0.36 (0.005)	0.38* (0.005)
Male	0.34 (0.005)	0.37* (0.005)
Female	0.37 (0.005)	0.40* (0.005)
All households	0.28 (0.004)	0.32* (0.004)
Male-headed	0.21 (0.004)	0.26* (0.005)
Female-headed	0.40 (0.005)	0.44* (0.006)
Source: Stats SA (1997); own calculations. Notes: *Denotes a significant change in the poverty estimate from the preceding column. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets. Measure III includes earned income and social grants, augmented with expenditure data for households which do not report earned income or social grants. Measure IV includes earned income and social grants plus remittance transfers, work pensions, private maintenance, unemployment benefits and gratuities.

Table 9: Per capita and per adult equivalent poverty estimates (measure III), 2006

	Per capita (z = R322)		Per adult equivalent (z = R417)
	P0	P1	P0	P1
All	55.96 (2.01)	0.31 (0.013)	55.13 (1.94)	0.30 (0.012)
Male	52.28 (1.99)	0.29 (0.013)	51.83 (1.94)	0.28 (0.012)
Female	59.55 (2.03)	0.33 (0.013)	58.35 (1.96)	0.32 (0.012)
Source: Stats SA (2006); own calculations. Notes: The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets. None of the per adult equivalent poverty estimates is significantly different from the per capita estimates.

Table 10: Per capita and per adult equivalent poverty trends

	Headcount (P0)
	OHS 1997	OHS 1999	GHS 2004	GHS 2006
Measure III – per capita (z = R322)
All	59.51 (0.639)	63.62* (0.645)	61.60* (0.718)	55.96* (2.01)
Male	57.11 (0.655)	61.32* (0.663)	58.40* (0.750)	52.28* (1.99)
Female	61.75 (0.647)	65.78* (0.662)	64.70 (0.732)	59.55* (2.03)
Measure III – per adult equivalent (z = R417)
All	58.60 (0.630)	63.26* (0.651)	60.86* (0.719)	55.13 (1.94)
Male	56.37 (0.651)	61.04* (0.666)	57.87* (0.748)	51.83 (1.94)
Female	60.68 (0.477)	65.35* (0.671)	63.74 (0.733)	58.35 (1.96)
Source: Own calculations from the 1997 and 1999 OHSs and the 2004 and 2006 GHSs. Notes: *Denotes a significant change in the poverty estimate from the previous year at the 95% level of confidence. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in brackets.