The General Household Survey outlines key findings on development in South Africa over the past fifteen years since the first GHS was conducted in 2002. The GHS aims to assess the levels of development in the country as well as the extent of service delivery and the quality of services in a number of key service sectors, including health, disability, social security, housing, energy, access to and use of water and sanitation, environment, refuse removal, telecommunications, transport, household income, access to food, and agriculture.

1. General Household
Survey 2016
Measuring the progress of development in the country
Dr Pali Lehohla
Statistician-General

2. ICON ICON
The survey covers 6 areas
Education Health and Social
Development
Housing
Food security AgricultureHousehold access to
services and facilities
Education

3. Methodology
Fieldwork completed January to December 2016
Realized sample of 21 218 households
Information about 72 604 individuals
Face-to-face interviews were conducted
Interview household heads or, alternatively, 16 years of age or older
GHS
2016

4. Education

5. 49,8%
35,8%
4,2%
8,7%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
At home with parent or
guardian
Grade R, Pre-school, nursery
school, crèche, edu-care
centre
Day mother At home with another adult
Percentage of children aged 0─4 years using different child
care arrangements, 2016
* Top 4 arrangements
Approximately 35,8% of South African children
aged 0–4 years attended day-care or
educational facilities outside their homes.

6. Type of ECD stimulation received by children 0-4
A new battery of questions was included in 2016 to establish how often someone in the household read or
told stories to children, sang to or with them, or encouraged children to imitate others.
One-third (37,3%) of children were never told stories or encouraged to
imitate others (36,2%) in the household. However, 53,4% of children aged
0─4 were sang to, or sang with their caregivers regularly.
37,3
13,5
36,2
29,0
33,1
21,6
12,6
18,4
13,9
21,1
35,0 28,2
Read story Sing Imitate
Percentage
Never Sometimes Often Every day

7. Pre-school
Primary school
Secondary school
Not in education
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Almost universal school attendance in the age group 7─15 years. Noticeable
representation of learners who are older than the ideal graduation age in primary
and secondary schools. 4,2% of
Children are
not in
education at
age 15
At age 21
more learners
in Secondary
School than
University
and TVET
combined
12,2% of
Learners are
not yet in
some form of
structured
education by
age 5
TVET
University
Percentage of those aged 5 – 24 years who attend
educational institution, 2016

8. 18,8%
20,8%
1,3%
11,0% 11,4%
14,6%
7,8%
0,7%
13,6%
18,6%
17,0%
18,5%
4,9%
8,4% 8,7%
4,5%
0,3%
19,1%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
No money for
fees
Poor academic
perfor-mance
Family commit-
ments
Education is
useless
Illness and
disability
Completed
education
Working at home Getting to school Other
Male Female
The attendance of no-fee schools have increased sharply over the past decade
Vast gender disparities in family
commitment and perceptions
that education is useless
Percentage distribution of main reasons given by persons aged 7 to 18
years for not attending an educational institution by sex, 2016

9. 21,9% 28,4%
9,3%
14,0%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
NSC/Grade 12 Post-School
6,5 percentage points
4,7 percentage points
The percentage of individuals aged 20 years and older who have
attained Grade 12 has been increasing consistently since 2002,
expanding from 21,9% in 2002 to 28,4% in 2016. Individuals with
post-school qualifications increased from 9,3% to 14,0% during
the same time
Educational attainment for persons aged 20 years and older ,
2002 - 2016

10. South Africa
9,8%
LP
8,7%
MP
6,0%
KZN
15,0%
EC
17,9%
FS
13,3%
NW
11,6%
NC
9,9%
WC
1,8%
GP
1,8%
Percentage of children attending school who
experienced corporal punishment, 2016

11. 2,8% 3,4%
12,7%
15,6%
3,3% 3,5%
18,8%
17,5%
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
20%
Black African Coloured Indian / Asian White
2002
2016
4,5% of persons aged 18 to 29 were enrolled at a higher education institution in the country in 2016
2002
2016
In 2016 the absolute NUMBERS show that Black African population
group have much higher enrolment at 335 563 persons compared to
the 119 676 White population group, however the proportions
between the time periods have remained relatively stable , deep
racial disparities persist.
Percentage of persons aged 18 to 29 attending university by population
group, 2002 and 2016

12. Housing

13. Household and population growth
1,6%
27,6%
3,2%
59,5%
Average annual growth Growth 1996-2011
Population Households
Future trends in population, number of households and dwelling units are critical components in
strategic planning for future service delivery in South Africa
Census data show that the SA
population increased from
41 – 52 m between 1996 and
2011 at 1,64% pa
Simultaneously, households
increased almost twice as
fast (at 3,16% pa) from
9 m to 14 m
Driven by social change and
urbanisation, these underlying
demographic trends have far-reaching
impact on housing

14. 8,0 M
13,2 M
1,4 M
2,3 M
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Millions
Formal dwelling type Traditional dwelling type
Informal dwelling Other dwelling type
To meet increasing need for housing, the number of
formal dwellings have increased sharply over the past
15 years. The shortfall is, however, filled by an
increased in informal dwellings.
Number of households that lived in formal, informal and traditional
dwellings

15. South Africa
14%
LP
5,2%
MP
9,1%
KZN
8,1%
EC
7%
FS
16,5%
NW
20,8%
NC
13,9%
WC
18.3%
GP
19,8%
Percentage of households
that are informal,
2016
Migration plays
important role the
percentage of
Informal Households
GP receives 42%
of all internal
migrants and over
52% of
International
Migrants

16. Declining household size, increased demand for housing and services
22,8% 24,7%
61,1% 60,7%
14,0% 12,8%
2,2% 1,8%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
2-4 person households: largest single household
category, although relatively stable declining
slowly as percentage of all households
Single person household: Comprises one-
quarter of all households. Increasing share.
5-9 person
household:
Relatively small
percentage of all
households,
generally declining
share

17. Need for a variety of subsidised housing options
While the majority of subsidised dwellings are inhabited by families, 17% inhabited by single
persons. It highlights the poor options available to more mobile single person households who
are looking for cheaper, more flexible rental accommodation.
17,0%
63,2%
17,4%
2,4%
Single person 2-4 persons 5-9 persons > 10 persons
‘RDP’ or subsidised dwellings
by percentage of household
types that inhabit them

18. Declining household size, increased demand for housing and services
Formal Backyard Informal Traditional Other
Single person 18,6% 56,1% 38,4% 20,4% 54,0%
2-4 persons 64,8% 40,9% 54,9% 54,7% 38,4%
5-9 persons 14,6% 2,5% 6,6% 19,9% 7,2%
> 10 persons 2,0% 0,5% 0,1% 5,0% 0,5%
Single person households constitute
largest percentage of inhabitants of
backyard and other dwellings, and 38%
of informal inhabitants
2-4 person households are the largest occupants across most categories, particularly formal
dwellings

19. Own and paid off Partially owned Rented Occupied rent free Other
Single person 16,1% 9,0% 40,7% 36,0% 28,7%
2-4 persons 63,2% 80,8% 55,5% 51,3% 56,5%
5-9 persons 17,8% 9,8% 3,6% 11,5% 12,9%
> 10 persons 2,9% 0,4% 0,2% 1,2% 1,9%
0,0%
10,0%
20,0%
30,0%
40,0%
50,0%
60,0%
70,0%
80,0%
90,0%
Tenure status
Single person households concentrated in rental properties, or properties which can
be occupied rent-free. Larger families, particularly historical nuclear family, mostly
live in fully of partially owned properties.

20. Tenure status by age of household head.
Tenure status also depends on the age of household heads. A large percentage of older
heads live in fully paid off dwellings. Renting most common for households headed by
youth (20-34 years).
0,0
10,0
20,0
30,0
40,0
50,0
60,0
70,0
80,0
90,0
Less than 20 years old 20 - 34 35 - 59 60+
Fully paid Partially owned Renting Other
Renting most common for
households headed by youth
(age 20-34)

21. Percentage distribution of dwelling ownership status for households living in formal
dwellings by Population group of the head of the household,2016
Black African Coloured Indian / Asian White
Fully paid 57,5 51,1 45,1 38,7
Partially owned 4,8 13,4 21,4 28,0
Renting 22,4 21,5 28,5 29,7
Other 15,3 14,1 5,1 3,7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70 Full ownership most common amongst Black Africans, while
partial ownership most common for Whites. Living rent free
(other) most common amongst black Africans

22. WATER
85% (2002) to 89% (2016) access
improved water source. Early
increases, now stagnated and even
decline in some cases
SOLID FUEL COOKING
36% of Limpopo households still
use wood / coal for cooking
REFUSE REMOVAL
66,9% weekly. Large geographic
disparity
ELECTRICITY
77,1% (2002) to 84, 2% (2016),
decline from 86% in 2014
BUCKET/NONE
Percentage without toilet facilities,
or buckets, improved from 11,2 %
in 2003 to 4,2% in 2016
ACCESS TO IMPROVED SANITATION
Nationally, the percentage of
households with access to improved
sanitation increased from 62,3% in
2002 to 81% in 2016.
Interesting facts from the General Household Survey 2016

23. 33,2%
6,5%
11,2%
4,2%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Nationally, the percentage of households that continued to live without proper sanitation
facilities had been declining consistently between 2002 and 2016, decreasing from 12,3% to 4,2%
during this period.
Percentage of households by province, that have no toilet facility or were using a
bucket toilet, 2003 - 2016
EC
The most rapid decline over this
period was observed in Eastern Cape
(-30,3 percentage points)

24. Key Highlights: Education
About a quarter of premature school leavers charged ‘lack of
money’ for not studying. Family commitments cited by 18,5%
of females and 1,3% of males.
Participation rates at higher education institutions are low for
black African and coloured students.
Attendance almost universal at ages 7-15 years, 26,2%
of persons aged 5–24 not attending educational
institutions

25. Key Highlights: Household access to services and facilities
While the percentage of households with weekly refuse removal is increasing
slowly, large urban/rural differences in service levels are exposed that force
vast majority of rural households to rely on own refuse dumps
Access to electricity from the mains continue to increase, use of solid fuels
for cooking continues (due to accessibility and affordability of wood and
coal). Most prevalent in Limpopo (36%)
Access to piped water in the dwelling, on-site or off-site decreased, rate of
decreased has slowed down, due to focusing on provision of piped water
in dwelling to detriment of providing it on yard or publically.
Continued increase in percentage of households with access to improved
sanitation (flush or VIP pit toilets), however, households that use shared
facilities raised particular concerns, including poor hygiene and physical
safety

26. Thank You