Between 2003 and 2024, the percentage of individuals who benefited from social grants increased from 12,8% to 40,1% while households that contained at least one individual who received a grant increased from 30,8% to 50,4%. These increases were mainly due to the large uptake of COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grants.

Approximately 15,5% (9,8 million individuals) of individuals had medical aid coverage in 2024. Coverage varied from 25,4% in WC to 10,0% in LP. Although 68,3% of white South Africans were members of a medical aid scheme, whites only comprised 30,0% of all medical aid members.

Although national access to mains electricity increased from 76,7% in 2002 to 90,2% in 2024, almost a quarter used wood (7,7%), LPG/Gas (7,2%), paraffin (2,2%) and other sources of electricity (4,5%) for cooking.

Almost nine in ten (87,7%) of households had access to piped water in the dwelling, in the yard or at a communal tap, while 83,1% had access to improved sanitation (flush toilets and VIP Pit toilets), up from 61,7% in 2002.

Almost one quarter (22,2%) of households considered their access to food as inadequate or severely inadequate, 4 percentage points higher than in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19. The need was most pervasive in NC (34,3%) and least common in LP (5,9%).