Self-assessed well-being and economic rank in South Africa

Figures & data

Figure 1: Subjective well-being in South Africa, 2008 and 2010

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted.

Figure 2: Subjective well-being among Africans and whites: (a) 2008 and (b) 2010

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted.

Table 1: Differences in subjective well-being among individuals in 2008 and 2010

Difference in satisfaction level (2010 value – 2008 value)	Percentage of all adults	Percentage of African adults	Percentage of White adults
–9	0.62	0.71	–
–8	0.84	1.01	0.08
–7	2.12	2.43	0.71
–6	2.78	3.10	1.74
–5	4.51	4.86	1.17
–4	6.01	6.81	1.89
–3	9.57	10.08	7.90
–2	11.60	12.18	10.45
–1	11.77	11.86	10.71
0	14.60	12.76	24.93
1	10.05	9.18	14.92
2	8.63	8.03	9.84
3	6.58	6.15	9.09
4	4.65	5.06	3.04
5	2.96	2.91	3.52
6	1.29	1.31	–
7	0.68	0.76	–
8	0.24	0.25	–
9	0.48	0.56	–

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010.

Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The statistics in bold represent the percentage of adults whose measure of life satisfaction was unchanged across the two waves of NIDS. The data are weighted.

Figure 3: Perceived economic ranking in South Africa, 2008 and 2010

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted.

Table 2: Income versus perceived economic rank in South Africa, 2008 and 2010

Income rank	Perceived richest	Perceived middle	Perceived lowest	Total
2008
All
Richest third	0.07 (0.07)	0.65 (0.01)	0.28 (0.01)	1.00
Middle third	0.03 (0.00)	0.45 (0.01)	0.53 (0.01)	1.00
Lowest third	0.01 (0.00)	0.33 (0.01)	0.66 (0.01)	1.00
Africans
Richest third	0.05 (0.01)	0.61 (0.02)	0.34 (0.02)	1.00
Middle third	0.02 (0.00)	0.45 (0.01)	0.53 (0.01)	1.00
Lowest third	0.01 (0.00)	0.33 (0.01)	0.65 (0.01)	1.00
Whites
Richest third	0.10 (0.02)	0.73 (0.03)	0.17 (0.02)	1.00
Middle third	0.02 (0.02)	0.50 (0.11)	0.48 (0.11)	1.00
Lowest third	0 (0)	0.57 (0.23)	0.43 (0.23)	1.00
2010
All
Richest third	0.08 (0.01)	0.68 (0.01)	0.25 (0.01)	1.00
Middle third	0.02 (0.00)	0.46 (0.01)	0.52 (0.01)	1.00
Lowest third	0.01 (0.00)	0.39 (0.01)	0.60 (0.01)	1.00
Africans
Richest third	0.05 (0.01)	0.64 (0.02)	0.31 (0.02)	1.00
Middle third	0.02 (0.00)	0.46 (0.01)	0.53 (0.01)	1.00
Lowest third	0.01 (0.00)	0.39 (0.01)	0.60 (0.01)	1.00
Whites
Richest third	0.14 (0.02)	0.74 (0.03)	0.12 (0.02)	1.00
Middle third	0.0 (0.0)	0.22 (0.13)	0.78 (0.13)	1.00
Lowest third	0 (0)	0.08 (0.09)	0.92 (0.09)	1.00

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted. Standard errors are in parentheses. An individual's income rank is calculated with reference to average per-capita total household income. The statistics in bold represent the proportion of adults for whom perceived economic rank coincided with income rank.

Figure 4: Differences in perceived economic rank (2010–2008)

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted.

Figure 5: Differences in ladder steps (2010–2008), Africans and whites

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. The data are weighted.

Table 3: Anticipated upward mobility (two years in the future)

	2008	2010
African	0.77 (0.01)	0.50 (0.01)
Coloured	0.71 (0.02)	0.56 (0.03)
Indian	0.69 (0.05)	0.55 (0.07)
White	0.40 (0.03)	0.53 (0.03)

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1.The data are weighted. Upward mobility is defined as an individual expecting to be on a higher ladder step in two years time compared with at the time of the survey.

Table 4: Predicting subjective well-being among Africans: OLS and fixed effects

	NIDS Wave 1 (2008)	NIDS Panel (2008–10)
	OLS	OLS pooled data	Fixed effects
Perceived richest third	2.405***	1.870***	1.683***
	(0.185)	(0.117)	(0.211)
Perceived middle third	0.969***	0.821***	0.718***
	(0.050)	(0.032)	(0.058)
Richest income third	0.263**	–0.038	–0.091
	(0.119)	(0.082)	(0.154)
Middle income third	0.239***	–0.005	0.059
	(0.072)	(0.048)	(0.091)
Expect upward mobility	0.356***	0.267***	0.212***
	(0.055)	(0.032)	(0.058)
Log (per-capita household income)	0.166***	0.277***	0.136**
	(0.045)	(0.031)	(0.062)
Age^2	–0.000	0.000***	0.001***
	(0.000)	(0.000)	(0.000)
Matric (Grade 12)	0.052	0.019	–0.131
	(0.071)	(0.044)	(0.133)
Diploma or degree	0.195**	0.285***	0.181
	(0.097)	(0.061)	(0.186)
Married	0.201***	0.114***	0.557***
	(0.064)	(0.042)	(0.205)
Cohabiting	–0.019	–0.014	0.013
	(0.084)	(0.058)	(0.202)
Divorced or widowed	0.044	–0.031	0.409*
	(0.092)	(0.061)	(0.245)
Employed	0.110*	0.089*	0.327***
	(0.066)	(0.047)	(0.089)
Not economically active	0.200***	0.135***	0.272***
	(0.066)	(0.044)	(0.083)
Daily activities difficult	–0.628***	–0.504***	–0.448***
	(0.133)	(0.079)	(0.146)
Very good health	0.446***	0.549***	0.495***
	(0.050)	(0.034)	(0.061)
Wave 1 dummy	–	0.743***	0.926***
		(0.033)	(0.092)
R^2	0.098	0.108	0.077 (within)

Source: Author's own calculations, NIDS 2008 and 2010. Notes: The samples include African adults who were older than 16 years in wave 1. Standard errors are in parentheses. All estimations also included a quadratic in age and a wave dummy variable. ***Significant at the 1% level **Significant at the 5% level *Significant at the 10% level.