Statistics show almost a quarter of South African households go hungry

The Citizen

27-05-2025

South Africa has come a long way to ensure more households have water and electricity, but many still do not have enough to eat.
Statistics for last year show that almost a quarter of South African households did not have enough food to eat last year. This means that about 14 million people out of the 63 million people in South Africa went to bed hungry.
According to the General Household Survey for 2024 issued by Statistics SA on Tuesday, 22.2% of households considered their access to food inadequate or severely inadequate, with the worst food access problems in the Northern Cape (34.3%), Eastern Cape (31.3%), Mpumalanga (30.4%) and KwaZulu-Natal (23.9%).
Going to sleep hungry is not the only problem that many South Africans have. More people also became reliant on government funding as the proportion of individuals receiving social grants increased from 12.8% in 2003 to 30.9% in 2019 and surged to 40.1% in 2024 due to the introduction of the special Covid-19 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
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42.2% of households headed by women
Almost half of the households in South Africa are headed by women, at 42.4%. In the rural areas, this number is even higher at 47.1%, particularly in the Eastern Cape (48.8%) and KwaZulu-Natal (46.8%). Households headed by women were the least common in Gauteng (37.3%).
The report shows that more than a quarter (26.9%) of households consisted of a single person, while 39.4% were nuclear households of parents and children. Skip generation households, where grandparents lived with grandchildren, made up 4.2% of all households, and these were most common in the Eastern Cape (7.7%) and Limpopo (6.9%).
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Only 31.4% of children live with both parents in households
Less than a third (31.4%) of children lived with both parents, while 45.5% lived with their mothers only and 11.7% were orphaned, having lost one or both parents. Almost 18.8% of South African children lived with neither of their biological parents.
Only about three out of twenty South Africans had access to a medical aid scheme in 2024, with coverage decreasing slightly from 15.9% in 2002 to 15.5% in 2024. The highest coverage rates were in the Western Cape (25.4%) and Gauteng (21.3%), while the lowest were in Limpopo (10.0%) and KwaZulu-Natal (10.2%).
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People living in formal dwellings increased by more than 10% in 22 years
The survey shows that the percentage of households living in formal dwellings increased from 73.5% in 2002 to 84.1% in 2024. Nationally, 60.1% owned the dwelling they lived in, while 25.1% rented their dwellings.
Between 2002 and 2024, the percentage of households with access to piped or tap water in their dwellings, off-site or on-site, increased by 3.3 percentage points to 87.7%. Those with access to piped water in their dwellings increased from 40.4% to 46.4%.
The percentage of households with access to municipal water increased from 78.4% in 2004 to 79.8% in 2024, an increase of 6.3 million.
Access to improved sanitation with flush toilets or pit toilets with ventilation pipes increased from 61.7% in 2002 to 83.1% in 2024. The largest increases were observed in the Eastern Cape (56.5 percentage points), Limpopo (35.3 percentage points) and KwaZulu-Natal (26.9 percentage points).
Approximately 66.7% of households used flush toilets (up from 57.3% in 2002), while 16.3% used pit toilets with ventilation pipes (up from 4.4% in 2002). Less than 1% of households did not have access to any form of sanitation, and while 46.2% of toilet facilities were located in the dwelling, 49.9% were located in the yard.
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Access to electricity also increased for households
Access to mains electricity also increased notably since 2002, according to the report, increasing from 76.7% to 90.2%.
Statistics SA says improved access to electricity had major implications for households. The percentage of households that used electricity as the main source of energy for cooking increased from 57.5% to 77.3%, while households that used paraffin decreased to 2.2% from 16.1%, and households that used wood or coal decreased from 23.0% to 8.0%. Gas users increased from 2.2% to 7.2%.
Access to electricity also enabled wider use of household electrical appliances. Almost 88.3% of households owned an electrical stove (up from 78.7% in 2012), while 80.9% of households owned a fridge (up from 70.1% in 2012). About 59.3% of households owned a microwave oven.
In addition, the report shows that 35.9% of households experienced load shedding or power interruptions during the week before they were interviewed. Households used a variety of alternative energy sources for cooking.
Nationally, 28.2% used LPG/gas and 25.2% used open fires using a variety of materials such as wood, coal and charcoal. The use of gas was most common in the Western Cape (46.6%) and Gauteng (36.9%). Statistics SA says this increase is reflected in the fact that household ownership of gas stoves and plates increased from 19% in 2022 to 30.4% in 2024.
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Fewer people own radios, but more own TV sets
Findings from the report also revealed a decline in traditional radio ownership due to access to alternative media like TV and the internet. The percentage of households that owned a radio decreased from 79.8% in 2002 to 31.3% in 2024, while household ownership of television sets increased from 57.4% in 2002 to 77.5% in 2024. Pay TV subscriptions increased from 29.2% in 2012 to 58.6% in 2024.
Although the percentage of households without physical mail services increased from 9.0% in 2002 to 62.6% in 2024, South African households have actually become more connected since 2002, Statistics SA says.
While the percentage of households that used landlines decreased from 25.5% in 2002 to 3.4% in 2024, access to mobile phones exploded and 96.1% owned at least one mobile phone in 2024.
The percentage of households with access to the Internet through any other means increased from 28.0% in 2010 to 82.1% by 2024. Access to the internet through fixed lines at home hovered at about 10% between 2010 and 2021, before increasing to 17.4% in 2024.