{"id":137003,"date":"2016-09-18T19:30:39","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T17:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=137003"},"modified":"2016-09-18T17:10:33","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T15:10:33","slug":"white-vs-black-household-spending-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/137003\/white-vs-black-household-spending-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Black vs white household spending in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

While tough economic conditions have put pressure on all households across all races and income groups, data from the Institute or Race Relations shows that white households are by far still the best off in the country.<\/p>\n

The data is contained in a research report from the IRR in 2015, showing consumer expenditure trends among South Africans, broken down by expenditure level and race.<\/p>\n

The breakdown reveals massive levels of inequality, where almost two-thirds (61%) of white households fall into the highest level of monthly expenditure (R10,000+), compared to only 8% of black households, and 20% of coloured and 43% of Asian\/Indian households.<\/p>\n

Conversely, the majority of black African households (60%) are spending under R2,500 a month, compared to just 6% of white households, 32% of coloured households and 10% of Asian\/Indian households.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Expenditure<\/th>\nBlack African<\/th>\nColoured<\/th>\nIndian\/African<\/th>\nWhite<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
R0 – R399<\/td>\n626 000<\/td>\n21 000<\/td>\n*<\/td>\n*<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R400 – R799<\/td>\n1 244 000<\/td>\n40 000<\/td>\n*<\/td>\n*<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R800 – R1 199<\/td>\n1 815 000<\/td>\n64 000<\/td>\n6 000<\/td>\n27 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R1 200 – R1 799<\/td>\n2 013 000<\/td>\n92 000<\/td>\n13 000<\/td>\n34 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R1 800 – R2 499<\/td>\n1 851 000<\/td>\n137 000<\/td>\n17 000<\/td>\n37 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R2 500 – R4 999<\/td>\n2 299 000<\/td>\n273 000<\/td>\n52 000<\/td>\n128 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R5 000 – R9 999<\/td>\n1 315 000<\/td>\n245 000<\/td>\n83 000<\/td>\n302 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R10 000+<\/td>\n1 012 000<\/td>\n222 000<\/td>\n154 000<\/td>\n988 000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Unspecified<\/em><\/td>\n330 000<\/em><\/td>\n21 000<\/em><\/td>\n34 000<\/em><\/td>\n93 000<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total housholds<\/strong><\/td>\n12 506 000<\/strong><\/td>\n1 116 000<\/strong><\/td>\n361 000\u00a0<\/strong><\/td>\n1 619 000<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

* Numbers under 10,000 are too small to provide estimates<\/em><\/p>\n

The following graphs show the differences between the lower (<R2,500), middle (R2,500-R10,000) and upper (R10,000+) levels of monthly\u00a0spending among South Africa’s 15.6 million households, across race groups.<\/p>\n

\"expenditure-total\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"expenditure-low\"<\/a> \"expenditure-med\"<\/a> \"expenditure-high\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (Pacsa), the average household in South Africa comprises 5 family members (a mix of children, adults and the elderly), shooting up to 7 members in black households.<\/p>\n

To feed a family of 5 the bare minimum in August 2016, it costs R1,942 – in August 2015 (aligning with the IRR’s data), the amount was R1,624.<\/p>\n

To feed a family of 5 a nutritionally complete basket of food (the minimum recommended for healthy living), it would cost R3,126 – and R4,325 for a family of 7.<\/p>\n

However, in terms of South Africa\u2019s rising black middle class, updated figures showed that this segment has more than trebled over the past 12 years, while the country\u2019s white middle class has shrunk over the same period.<\/p>\n

City Press reported that the black middle class is up to 5.81 million, citing University of Cape Town marketing professor, John Simpson.<\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Simpson, factors driving the surge include greater access to credit, improved education levels, BEE and improved economic growth until recently. He noted that since 2004, the number of black middle class members with a tertiary qualification has grown by more than 2 million.<\/p>\n

\"middleclass\"<\/a><\/p>\n

More on finances<\/h3>\n

Pacsa says you should pay your domestic worker R8,000 a month \u2013 minimum<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how much it now costs to feed a family of 5 in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

How a R4,000 South African minimum wage compares to the rest of the world<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A R4,000 minimum wage will kill jobs and make people poorer: economist<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While tough economic conditions have put pressure on all households across all races and income groups, data from the Institute or Race Relations shows that white households are by far still the best off in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":129870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121,9876],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-137003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","category-lifestyle","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137003"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137141,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003\/revisions\/137141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}