State of the Environment South Africa - Indicators - Human settlements - Number of people living in informal dwellings

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Number of people living in informal dwellings

1. Goal: Environmental Goal 2. Indicator: Indicator 3. Progress: Are we making progress?

1. Goal 2. Indicator 3. Progress

Environmental Goal

To reduce the number of people residing in informal dwellings

1. Goal 2. Indicator 3. Progress

Indicator

Percentage of individuals residing in informal dwellings

	Informal Dwellings	Other	Percentage of people living in informal dwellings	Total
North West	739 563	2 532 387	22.60	3 271 949
Gauteng	2 083 626	8 368 085	19.94	10 451 711
Free State	495 452	2 277 606	17.87	2 773 059
Western Cape	642 812	4 635 777	12.18	5 278 588
Mpumalanga	378 604	3 264 833	10.39	3 643 438
Northern Cape	101 250	956 810	9.57	1 058 061
KwaZulu-Natal	700 140	9 559 089	6.82	10 259 229
Eastern Cape	383 983	6 143 763	5.88	6 527 746
Limpopo	241 205	4 997 077	4.60	5 238 282
Total	5 766 635	42 735 427	11.89	48 502 062

Source: Statistics South Africa, Community Survey 2007. Available from: www.statssa.gov.za

1. Goal 2. Indicator 3. Progress

Are we making progress?

During 2007 a community survey was conducted over all nine provinces of South Africa. During this survey a total of 949 105 people were enumerated, whilst a total of 246 618 households were covered. Due to the fact that the survey was based on a sample the data were weighted.

Unfortunately no previous information is currently available on housing trends for informal dwellings with which the 2007 data can be compared. From the calculations it can be seen that a total of 11.89% of the South African population resides in informal dwellings. The provinces with the highest informal dwelling percentage is the North West closely followed by Gauteng

Together with the release of the Community Survey Statistics South Africa released some cautionary notes. These notes are as follows:

The Community Survey results were released on the 24 October 2007. After the evaluation of the data by the Stats Council, the Community Survey was found to be comparable in many aspects with other Stats SA surveys, censuses and other external sources. However, there are some was found to be comparable in many aspects with other Stats SA areas of concern where Statistics South Africa is urging users to be more cautious when using the Community Survey data

The main concerns (relevant to this specific indicator) are:

The institutional population is merely an approximation to 2001 numbers and it is not new data. Since the Community Survey is based on random sample and not a Census, any interpretation should be understood to have some random fluctuation in data, particularly concerning the small population for some cells. The user should understand that the figures are within a certain interval of confidence.

It should be noted that the term informal dwelling is not sinonomous with the term slum. According to the UN-Habitat foundation a slum is defined as any structure, formal as well as informal without basic social services such as water, sanitation and electricity. Some informal dwellings have access to these services and are thus not classified as slums.

This page was last updated 27/01/2010