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.
