The report makes use of three of the most widely used subjective poverty measures in order to update the subjective poverty profile in South Africa.  They have been adapted from the Living Conditions Survey (LCS) 2014/15 and Income & Expenditure Survey (IES) 2022/23. They are:

1)    The self-perceived wealth indicator which asks respondents to self-assess and identify the economic status of their households. 

2)    The minimum income indicator asks respondents to select the smallest level of income with which their household could make ends meet.

3)    The income evaluation indicator asks respondents to directly evaluate whether or not their household’s actual level of income is above or below the minimum income required for the household to make ends meet.

The results indicates that the poverty headcount rates based on subjective poverty measures generally declined between 2015 and 2023, where two of the three subjective poverty measures experienced a decrease in their headcount rates during the period. Only the poverty headcount rate based on the income evaluation indicator increased from 49,7% in 2015 to 51,4% in 2023. The poverty headcount rates based on the minimum income indicator decreased from 50,6% in 2015 to 41,3% in 2023, while those based on the self-perceived wealth indicator decreased from 34,4% in 2015 to 25,7% in 2023. Between the two subjective poverty measures which declined, the minimum income indicator experienced the biggest decline of 9,3 percentage points during the period.