Measuring human capital in South Africa using a socioeconomic status human capital index approach

Figures & data

Table 1. South African harmonised test score per school quintile.

School Quintile	PIRLS (2016)	TIMSS MAT (2015)	TIMSSSCIE (2015)	Avg/avg student*
1	288	341	317	315.33
2	299	341	317	319
3	303	341	371	338.33
4	328	423	425	392
5	426	423	425	424.67

Source: Reddy et al. (2015) and Howie et al. (2017).

*This is the average score across the PIRLS (2016), TIMSS MAT (2015) and TIMSSSCIE (2015) per student and school quintile.

Table 2. Study variations by data and survival, education and health components.

Component	Data	Survival*	Education				Health
			Age category	Expected years of schooling (EYS)	Harmonised test score (HTS)	Rates or return	Stunting	ASR***
HCI (Kraay, 2018). (World Bank, 2019c)	National Administrative data^a	Under-5 mortality rate (U5MR)	4–17	Enrolment rates	TIMSS and PIRLS	8%	Under-5 stunting rate (U5SR)	ASR***
SES-HCI (D’Souza et al., 2019)	Household data (DHS; MIC)	U5MR	6–17	Enrolment rates	TIMSS and PIRLS	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by income. Tables 4–7	Household data (NIDS; DHS).	U5MR	4–17	Enrolment rates	Table 6	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by income (with tertiary education). Table 8.	Household data (NIDS; DHS)	U5MR	4–25	Education attainment	Table 6	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by race. Tables 10–12.	Household data (NIDS; DHS)	U5MR	4–17	Enrolment rates	Table 9	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by region. Tables 10–12	Household data (NIDS; DHS)	U5MR	4–17	Enrolment rates	Table 9	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by gender. Tables 11–13	Household data (NIDS; DHS)	U5MR	4–17	Enrolment rates	Table 9	8%	U5SR	–
SA SES-HCI by school quintile.** Table 13	Household data (NIDS; DHS)	U5MR proxy**	4–17	Enrolment rates	Table 1		U5SR	–

^a See Kraay (2018) footnote on page 1 for all the contributors to the data collection process.

*For the SES-HCI estimates, the total number of observed under-5 deaths using the NIDS was only 26. Thus SES-HCI disaggregated indicators were in addition calculated using the SADHS U5MRs (NDoH et al., 2019).

**With regards to disaggregation by school quintile the U5MR per income quintile were used as a proxy in the case of the NIDS data and wealth quintile (calculated using wealth indices estimated by means of Principal Component Analysis) for the SADHS data. Under-5 stunting rates per income quintile was used as a proxy for under-5 stunting per school quintile.

***Adult survival rate.

Table 3. HCI, South Africa: NIDS data versus World Bank (WB) data calculation.

Component	WB	NIDS	NIDS/SADHS	NIDS
	Enrolment*	Enrolment*	Enrolment*	Attainment**
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.96	0.97	0.96	0.97
Expected years of school	9.4	12.4	12.4	10.1
HTS	343	345	345	345
School (B)	0.49	0.56	0.56	0.60
Not stunted	0.73	0.79	0.79	0.79
Adult Survival Rate (ASR)	0.68	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.86	0.93	0.93	0.93
HCI (A x B x C)	0.41	0.51	0.50	0.54

Source: NDoH et al. (2019), World Bank (2019b) and authors own calculations.

*Expected years of schooling estimated using repetition adjusted enrolment rates with a potential maximum of 14 years.

**Expected years of schooling estimated using education attainment, with a potential maximum of 12 years.

Table 4. SES-HCI, South Africa: Income quintiles.

Component	Overall	1	2	3	4	5
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.97	0.97	0.98	0.95	1.0000
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.0	12.0	12.5	12.7	13.2
Harmonised test score	345	331	340	345	361	386
School (B)	0.56	0.54	0.55	0.57	0.59	0.62
Not stunted	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86	0.88
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96
HCI (AxBxC)	0.51	0.48	0.50	0.52	0.53	0.60

Source: Authors own calculations.

Table 5. SES-HCI, South Africa: Income quintiles (using survival to age 5 estimates from the SADHS per wealth quintile as a proxy).

Component	Overall	1	2	3	4	5
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.96	0.93	0.95	0.95	0.97	0.96
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.0	12.0	12.5	12.7	13.2
Harmonised test score	345	331	340	345	361	385
School (B)	0.56	0.54	0.55	0.57	0.59	0.62
Not stunted	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86	0.88
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96
HCI (AxBxC)	0.50	0.46	0.48	0.51	0.54	0.57

Source: Authors own calculations and NDoH et al. (2019).

Table 6. Average harmonised test score (HTS) calculated using percentage of learners from each school quintile in each income quintile.

School quintile	HTS	Income quintile
		1	2	3	4	5	National
Quintile 1	315.33	29.88	23.41	20,28	12.58	9.79	22.08
Quintile 2	319	32.43	27.6	24,95	17.37	6.24	24.69
Quintile 3	338.33	28.03	29.75	29,99	27.45	20.8	29.03
Quintile 4	392	7.09	13.25	16,83	23.24	13.27	13.20
Quintile 5	424.67	2.56	5.99	7,94	19.36	49.91	11.01
TOTAL		100	100	100	100	100	100
Average score		331	340	345	361	385	345

Source: Authors own calculations.

Table 7. SES-HCI, South Africa: Income quintiles, using a graded curve.

Component	Overall	1	2	3	4	5
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.97	0.97	0.98	0.95	1.0000
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.0	12.0	12.5	12.7	13.2
Harmonised test score	345	331	340	345	361	385
School (B)	0.85	0.69	0.71	0.74	0.78	0.85
Not stunted	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86	0.88
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96
HCI (AxBxC)	0.66	0.60	0.64	0.67	0.71	0.81

Source: Authors own calculations.

Table 8. SES-HCI, South Africa: Per income quintile, using a graded curve and mean education attainment at age 25.

Component	Overall	1	2	3	4	5
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.97	0.97	0.98	0.95	1.0000
Expected years of schooling	11.3	10.6	10.7	11.2	11.6	12.5
Harmonised test score	345	331	340	345	361	385
School (B)*	0.58	0.54	0.55	0.57	0.61	0.69
Not stunted	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86	0.88
Adult survival rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96
HCI (A x B x C)	0.52	0.47	0.50	0.53	0.56	0.66

Source: Authors own calculations.

*Rate of return of 8% per additional year of education applied as per Kraay (2018).

Table 9. Harmonised test score (HTS) by area, gender and race.

School quintile	HTS	Percentage school quintile attendance by area, gender and race*
		Area		Gender		Race
		Urban	Rural	Male	Female	African	Coloured	Asian/Indian	White
Quintile 1	315.33	12.86	32.18	21.16	22.34	23.80	6.00	4.16	1.96
Quintile 2	319	15.85	35.64	25.35	24.56	26.84	13.31	2.08	2.14
Quintile 3	338.33	30.06	25.9	29.31	26.97	30.03	16.61	1.16	6.57
Quintile 4	392	21.73	4.34	13.01	14.45	12.02	37.03	29.31	5.26
Quintile 5	424.67	19.5	1.95	11.16	11.69	7.30	27.05	63.29	84.08
TOTAL		100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Average score		361	328	345	346	340	378	407	413

Source: Authors own calculations.

*The calculation is based on individuals aged 4–17 enrolled in an educational institution.

Table 10. SES-HCI, South Africa: area, gender and race, using educational enrolment.

Component	Overall	Urban	Rural	Male	Female	African	Coloured	Asian/ Indian	White
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.974	0.967	0.975	0.969	0.972	0.98	1.00	1.00
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.5	12.2	12.1	12.6	12.3	12.5	12.1	13.2
Harmonised test score	345	361	328	345	346	340	378	407	413
School (B)	0.56	0.58	0.54	0.56	0.57	0.56	0.60	0.61	0.66
Not stunted	0.79	0.81	0.77	0.77	0.89	0.79	0.77	0.85	0.93
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.94	0.92	0.92	0.96	0.93	0.92	0.95	0.98
HCI (A x B x C)	0.51	0.53	0.49	0.50	0.53	0.50	0.54	0.58	0.64

Source: Authors own calculations.

Table 11. SES-HCI, South Africa: area, gender and race, using educational enrolment (using SADHS (2016) U5MRs).

Component	Overall	Urban	Rural	Male	Female	African	Coloured	Asian/Indian*	White
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.96	0.96	0.95	0.95	0.97	0.95	0.96	–	0.97
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.5	12.2	12.1	12.6	12.3	12.5		13.2
Harmonised test score	345	361	328	345	346	340	378		413
School (B)	0.56	0.58	0.54	0.56	0.57	0.56	0.60		0.66
Not stunted	0.79	0.81	0.77	0.77	0.89	0.79	0.77		0.93
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.94	0.92	0.92	0.96	0.93	0.92		0.98
HCI (AxBxC)	0.50	0.52	0.48	0.49	0.53	0.49	0.53	–	0.62

Source: Authors own calculations, NDoH et al. (2019) and Victoria et al. (2020).

*There were no results published by Victoria et al. (2020) for Asians and Indians thus excluded.

Table 12. SES-HCI, South Africa: area, gender and race, using graded curve for HTS.

Component	Overall	Urban	Rural	Male	Female	African	Coloured	Asian/ Indian	White
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.974	0.967	0.975	0.969	0.972	0.98	1.00	1.00
Expected years of schooling	12.4	12.5	12.2	12.1	12.6	12.3	12.5	12.1	13.2
Harmonised test score	345	361	328	345	346	340	378	407	413
School (B)	0.73	0.77	0.69	0.72	0.74	0.72	0.80	0.82	0.91
Not stunted	0.79	0.81	0.77	0.77	0.89	0.79	0.77	0.85	0.93
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.93	0.94	0.92	0.92	0.96	0.93	0.92	0.95	0.98
HCI (A x B x C)	0.66	0.70	0.62	0.64	0.69	0.65	0.72	0.78	0.89

Source: Authors own calculations.

Table 13. SES-HCI, South Africa: Per school quintile.

Component	1	2	3	4	5	1	2	3	4	5
	Max HTS* 625					Graded curve (max HTS 425)
Survival to Age 5 (A)	0.97	0.97	0.98	0.95	1.00	0.97	0.97	0.98	0.95	1.00
Expected years of schooling	13.1	12.9	13.1	13.2	13.6	13.1	12.9	13.1	13.2	13.6
Harmonised test score	316	319	338	392	425	316	319	338	392	425
School (B)	0.55	0.55	0.58	0.63	0.68	0.71	0.71	0.75	0.86	0.97
Not stunted	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86	0.79	0.72	0.79	0.82	0.86
Adult stunting rate	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Health (C)	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96	0.91	0.93	0.94	0.95	0.96
HCI (A x B x C)	0.48	0.50	0.53	0.57	0.66	0.62	0.64	0.69	0.78	0.93

Source: Authors own calculations.

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