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By Dylan Bettencourt
- The Marginalised Groups Indicator Report 2024 by Stats SA found youth unemployment at 45.5% and child hunger at 16.3% nationally.
- Female-headed households are more likely to go hungry, and 34.4% of South African women are without jobs, Stats SA found.
South Africa’s children, youth, women, elderly and people with disabilities are still carrying the heaviest load when it comes to poverty and hunger, according to Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
The Marginalised Groups Indicator Report for 2024, compiled by Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke, used data from several national surveys to check whether life is getting better for these groups.
About 21-million children aged 17 and younger live in South Africa. Nearly half live only with their mother, and about 19% live with neither parent. Hunger affects 16.3% of children nationally, rising to 23.3% in the Northern Cape and 22.6% in KwaZulu-Natal.
More than two-thirds of children depend on social grants. About 30.6% live in households where no adult has a job. In the Eastern Cape, that figure rises to 48.3%.
Young people aged 15 to 34 face a youth unemployment rate of 45.5%. Young women are hit harder, with 45.6% not in employment, education or training, compared to 37.6% of young men.
Women head 42.4% of all households in South Africa, but female-headed households go hungry more often than male-headed ones, 14.1% compared to 11.5%. The national female unemployment rate was 34.4%, rising to 43.7% in the North West. More than 20% of women said they felt unsafe walking alone during the day.
South Africans aged 60 and above number 5.5-million. Chronic illness affects 60% of this group, but only 21.9% have access to medical aid. Among white elderly people, that figure is 70%, compared to 6.6% among black African elderly.
About 6% of South Africans live with a disability. Of those aged 25 and older, 17.7% had no schooling at all.
Pictured above: Villagers fetching water from a lake in the Eastern Cape.
Image source: Supplied
