Although the number of people living in extreme poverty decreased to 5.1 million between 2009 and 2023, 10.8 million, almost one in five South Africans, still live in poverty.
Most South Africans live in poverty, but the curse of age and location makes it worse for children and people who live in rural areas.
Statistics SA investigated poverty in South Africa between 2006 and 2023 and published its third report on poverty trends today, which shows that children and youth still bear the burden of poverty, although the pattern has changed for other age groups.
According to the report, South Africa has made progress in reducing poverty across all age groups, but the progress has not been equal. It points out that children remained the most vulnerable, with nearly half of them still living below the poverty line in 2023.
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Still deep poverty in rural areas
Rural areas also continue to face deep poverty, while older people saw the most dramatic improvements. Statistics SA says these patterns show how age and location shape the experience of poverty, and why understanding these dynamics matters in reducing poverty.
Poverty and age often move hand in hand, affecting people in different ways across their life cycle. The report by Statistics SA, Poverty trends in South Africa: An examination of absolute poverty between 2006 and 2023, sheds new light on how poverty evolved over nearly two decades.
Drawing on data from the Income and Expenditure Survey for 2022-23, the report analyses poverty levels among individuals and households, providing a detailed breakdown by various demographic, socio-economic and geographic characteristics, including age.
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Children under 17 still most vulnerable group making up 43.1% of poor
The report points out that children under the age of 17 remain one of the most vulnerable groups in the country, making up 43.1% of the poor population in 2023. Between 2006 and 2023, the pattern of poverty starts high among children and then declines steadily through the working-age group (18 to 54 years), before starting to increase again for people older than 55.
However, Statistics SA says, the trend shifted slightly between 2015 and 2023, with poverty increasing among people between the ages of 55 and 64, but falling among people older than 65. This chart shows the poverty measures by age group:
Between 2006 and 2023, people older than 65 experienced the largest improvement in their poverty status, with their headcount dropping by 54.8% (a decline of 30.6 percentage points), followed by children with a notable decrease of 29.3% (a drop of 20.3 percentage points).
Child poverty declined from 69.4% in 2006 to 49.1% in 2023, and although this represents a significant decline, the poverty rate of 49.1% remained the highest for any age group, with nearly half of all children in the country still living in poverty.
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Pattern of poverty shifted over time
Statistics SA also found that the pattern of poverty shares shifted over time. Between 2006 and 2023, the share of poverty among children, youth (18 to 24 years) and people older than 65 decreased, while individuals in other age groups (from 25 to 64 years) saw their poverty shares increase.
The largest increase was among people in the age group 35 to 44, whose poverty share grew from 8.7% in 2006 to 12.6%, in 2023, followed by the 25 to 34 age group, with an increase from 13.8% to 16.1%. Despite these changes, older people had the lowest poverty share in 2023 at 4.2%, Statistics SA says.
This chart shows how poverty affects the various age groups:
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General decline in households and age
When it comes to household poverty and age, Statistics SA found that there was a general decline in the incidence of household poverty across all age groups between 2006 and 2023. The biggest improvement was among households headed by people older than 65, while the smallest decrease occurred in child-headed households.
Poverty was highest in child-headed households and declined as the age of the head of the household increased. This pattern is expected, Statistics SA says, given the small number of child-headed households and the fact that children and young people make up the majority of poor people in the country.
The research found that poverty increased by 8.7% in households headed by 18–24-year-olds between 2006 and 2009 (from 35.6% to 38.7%), before dropping steadily to 17.8% in 2023. Poverty also decreased from 43.5% in 2006 to 33.0% in 2011 for households headed by 45 to 54-year-olds, before increasing slightly to 33.5% in 2015, then declining again to 24.4% in 2023.
Overall, Statistics SA says, poverty shares fell for households headed by children, youth and people older than 65. Households headed by individuals between the ages of 35 and 64 accounted for a higher proportion of poor households in 2023.
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How did age and sex affect poverty?
Statistics SA says poverty declined for males and females across all age groups between 2006 and 2023, but females consistently recorded slightly higher poverty headcounts. However, children and youth were the most affected, regardless of sex.
The research shows that poverty dropped by 20.6 percentage points for female children, from 70.1% in 2006 to 49.5% in 2023. Male children saw a similar decline of 20.1 percentage points from 68.8% to 48.6%.
Poverty among young females between the ages of 18 and 24 fell by 19.1 percentage points, while males recorded a comparable decline of 19.2 percentage points from 2006 to 2023.
Statistics SA says the sharpest improvement for both sexes was among people older than 65, with poverty among older males falling by 58.3%, from 52.5% in 2006 to 21.9% in 2023, while older females saw a 53.0% drop, from 58.1% to 27.3%.
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Rural areas still bearing the brunt
The research also examined poverty by age and settlement type and found that rural areas continued to bear the impact of poverty between 2015 and 2023. Across all age groups, rural poverty rates were roughly double those in urban areas in 2023. While poverty declined in both settings, rural poverty levels remained significantly higher throughout the period, Statistics SA points out.
Children and youth had the highest poverty rates in rural and urban settlements compared to other age groups. Rural child poverty fell from 86.9% in 2006 to 64.3% in 2023 (a decline of 22.6 percentage points), indicating that more than six out of ten rural children were still living in poverty in 2023.
Poverty dropped by 36.3 percentage points among people older than 65 from 78.3% in 2006 to 41.9% in 2023, making them the least poor age group in rural areas by 2023.
Statistics SA says urban areas showed similar trends, with children consistently experiencing higher poverty rates. The largest reduction in poverty was among older people, with their poverty falling by 17.8 percentage points, from 34.3% in 2006 to 16.6% in 2023.
