More men than women say they are poor in South Africa, Stats SA finds
· Citizen
South Africans may be feeling slightly better about their financial situations than they did a decade ago, but for many that sense of improvement is fragile and incomplete.
When it comes to gender, there is a slightly higher share of men who consider themselves poor compared with women.
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Data from Statistics South Africa reveal a complex picture in which rising perceptions of financial adequacy coexist with widespread feelings of income strain and economic uncertainty.
The Subjective Poverty in South Africa: Findings from the Income and Expenditure Survey found that fewer individuals now describe themselves as poor, but a significant number still say their earnings are not enough to meet everyday needs.
It is worth noting that subjective poverty is not only about income but also about how individuals experience their everyday lives. Stats SA said subjective poverty reflects whether individuals perceive that their resources allow them to live with dignity and meet what they regard as basic, acceptable living standards.
Families feeling financially strained
Households that do not perceive themselves as “poor” may still feel financially strained and uncertain. Those perceptions matter, they influence how households make decisions, plan for the future, and navigate the challenges of everyday life.
According to the blog published earlier in March 2026, fewer people in the country perceive themselves as poor than they did eight years ago.
“Two of the three measures used to capture how individuals perceive their financial status have improved,” said Stats SA.
“Using the self-perceived wealth indicator – which reflects how individuals rate their own financial wellbeing – individuals who perceived themselves as poor dropped from 34.4% in 2015 to 25.7% in 2023.”
Making ends meet
Findings revealed that the minimum income indicator, which compares what individuals say they need to make ends meet with what they actually earn, also declined, from 50.6% to 41.3%.
The income evaluation indicator, which measures whether individuals regard their income as sufficient to cover what they believe they need, increased from 49.7% to 51.4%.
“This means that a slightly larger share of individuals now regard their income falls short, even though fewer individuals classified themselves as poor overall,” said Stats SA.
Not poor but financially stretched
“Looking at the trends collectively, we see that residents in South Africa are increasingly unlikely to label themselves as poor, yet many still perceive themselves as financially stretched and unable to meet the rising cost of living,” it said.
“At the household level, the pattern is similar: most measures of how households feel about their financial situation have improved since 2015.”
Findings further reveal gender differences that challenge traditional assumptions about poverty. “When relying on subjective measures, males, appear as facing the highest risk to poverty between 2015 and 2023, the opposite of what objective measures typically show.”
More females consider themselves poor
According to Stats SA, using the self‑perceived wealth indicator, 25.2% of women considered themselves poor, compared with 26.2% of men.
The minimum income indicator shows a similar pattern, with poverty affecting 40.6% of females versus 41.9% of males.
Only the income evaluation indicator shows near‑identical results, with males at 51.2% and females at 51.6%, suggesting that both genders felt equally constrained by rising living costs.
Link between happiness and poverty
The findings also show an association between happiness and poverty. Individuals who describe themselves as “less happy” show a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing poverty, regardless of whether poverty is measured subjectively or objectively.
Using the Lower‑Bound Poverty Line, the income level needed to cover basic food and essential non‑food items is 40.6% of “less happy” individuals were poor, compared with 16.8% of those who were “happier.”
According to Stats SA, the gap between “less happy” and “happier” individuals becomes even more striking when looking at subjective measures of poverty.
“The self‑perceived wealth indicator shows a poverty rate of 54% among those who report being ‘less happy’, compared with only 14.7% among those who say they are ‘happier’.”
Subjective poverty declines
Stats SA said the findings show that while subjective poverty has declined over time, perceived financial strain remain, particularly among men and among individuals who describe themselves as less happy.
“These findings indicate that individuals’ reported levels of happiness are consistently associated with how they evaluate their financial circumstances.
“The report uses three of the most widely utilised subjective poverty measures in order to update the subjective poverty profile in South Africa.
“Adapted from the Living Conditions Survey (LCS), these include the self-perceived wealth indicator which asks respondents to self-assess and identify the economic status of their households, the minimum income indicator which asks respondents to select the smallest level of income with which their household could make ends meet and the income evaluation indicator which 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.”