Between 2003 and 2025, the percentage of individuals who benefited from social grants increased from 12,8% to 39,5% while households that contained at least one individual who received a grant increased from 30,8% to 50,6%. These increases were mainly due to the large uptake of COVID-19 Social Relief of Distress grants.

Approximately 15,5% (10,0 million individuals) of individuals had medical aid coverage in 2025. Coverage varied from 25,9% in WC to 8,2% in LP. Although 71,5% of white South Africans were members of a medical aid scheme, whites only comprised 30,6% of all medical aid members.

Although national access to mains electricity increased from 76,7% in 2002 to 90,6% in 2025, almost a quarter used wood (8,0%), LPG/Gas (9,4%), paraffin (1,9%) and other sources of electricity (3,7%) for cooking.

Almost nine in ten (87,4%) of households had access to piped water in the dwelling, in the yard or at a communal tap, while 84,0% had access to improved sanitation (flush toilets and VIP Pit toilets), up from 61,7% in 2002.

Almost one quarter (22,0%) of households considered their access to food as inadequate or severely inadequate, 4,2 percentage points higher than in 2019 before the outbreak of COVID-19. The need was most pervasive in NC (43,0%) and least common in LP (6,1%).