South Africa: national poverty line 2023

As of 2023, an individual living in South Africa with less than 1,058 South African rand (roughly 55.23 U.S. dollars) per month was considered poor. Furthermore, individuals having 760 South African rand (approximately 38.68 U.S. dollars) a month available for food were living below the poverty line according to South African national standards.

Absolute poverty

National poverty lines are affected by changes in the patterns of household consumers and fluctuations in prices of services and goods. They are calculated based on the consumer price indices (CPI) of both food and non-food items separately. The national poverty line is not the only applicable threshold. For instance,18.2 million people in South Africa were living under 1.9 U.S. dollars which is the international absolute poverty threshold defined by the World Bank.

Most unequal in the globe

A prominent aspect of South Africa’s poverty is related to extreme income inequality. The country has the highest income Gini index globally at 63 percent as of 2018. One of the crucial obstacles to combating poverty and inequality in the country is linked to job availability. In fact, youth unemployment was as high as 51.5 percent in 2022.

National poverty line in South Africa as of 2023 (in South African rand)

Characteristic	Value in South African rand per person per month
Monthly food poverty line	760
Monthly lower-bound povery line	1,058
Monthly upper-bound povery line	1,558

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Release date

August 2023

More information

Region

South Africa

Survey time period

2023

Special properties

in May 2023 prices

Supplementary notes

Concerning inflation adjusted national poverty line per person per month

The source mentioned the following notes: ''The national poverty lines were constructed using the cost-of-basic-needs approach which links welfare to the consumption of goods and services. The lines contain both food and non-food components of household consumption expenditure''

Food poverty line– R760 (in May 2023 prices) per person per month. This refers to the amount of money that an individual will need to afford the minimum required daily energy intake. This is also commonly referred to as the “extreme” poverty line;
Lower-bound poverty line– R1 058 (in May 2023 prices) per person per month. This refers to the food poverty line plus the average amount derived from non-food items of households whose total expenditure is equal to the food poverty line; and
Upper-bound poverty line – R1 558 (in May 2023 prices) per person per month. This refers to the food poverty line plus the average amount derived from non-food items of households whose food expenditure is equal to the food poverty line.

Currency conversion on 10/10/2023: one U.S. dollar = 19.16 South African rand

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