How big is South Africa\u2019s middle class – especially its black component – and who belongs to it? Here are five main ways in which it can be measured.<\/p>\n
A decrease in poverty and growing middle class\u00a0are widely seen<\/a>\u00a0as desirable features of an economy.In South Africa, the growth of the black middle class in particular is used as a yardstick of sorts of the government\u2019s economic policy since 1994.<\/p>\n The expansion of the middle class is not necessarily an end in and of itself. Rather, it is thought to create\u00a0knock-on effects<\/a>, such as growing spending power, a better educated and trained workforce, more investment, more job creation and so on.<\/p>\n In the South African context, it is also\u00a0seen as important<\/a>\u00a0that the country\u2019s middle class change its demographic makeup to include more of those disadvantaged in the past.<\/p>\n Is South Africa\u2019s middle class growing?<\/strong><\/p>\n This is where things get a bit tricky. The middle class is often talked about in a concrete manner and yet it can be, and is measured and defined, in innumerable ways. A few examples:<\/p>\n As a result, saying that the middle class has grown is equivalent to saying democracy has strengthened \u2013 it seems like a good thing, but it doesn\u2019t mean much if the specific context and content of the terms aren\u2019t explained.<\/p>\n As Dr Justin Visagie, a research specialist at the\u00a0Human Sciences Research Council<\/a>, told Africa Check: \u201cI don\u2019t think there is a straight answer when it comes to defining the middle class \u2013 it depends on your perspective and what you are interested in.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are just some of the ways in which the middle class can be measured and how such measurements impact the numbers:<\/p>\n Because \u201cmiddle class\u201d (or any class) lacks a broadly accepted definition, other than a vague sense that it sits somewhere between the rich and the poor, we can all decide for ourselves what it means \u2013 and we do.<\/p>\n A straightforward approach to finding the size of the middle class is to ask people what class they identify themselves as belonging to.<\/p>\n The\u00a0World Values Survey<\/a>, where a global network of social scientists interview people from almost 100 countries around the world, collects data on \u201cbeliefs, values and motivations\u201d. One of the questions asked is: \u201cWhich social class would you describe yourself as belonging to?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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Self-identification<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n