Millions left behind: South Africa’s marginalised groups face persistent poverty, hunger and inequality

South Africa’s most vulnerable groups continue to bear the heaviest burden of poverty and social exclusion, according to Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA’s) latest Marginalised Groups Indicator Report for 2024. The report, compiled by Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke, draws on data from the General Household Survey, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey and the Governance, Public Safety and Justice Survey to track progress, or the lack thereof, across five groups: children, youth, women, older persons and persons with disabilities. “Marginalised groups are defined as a part of the South African population that experience a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion than the general population,” Stats SA noted in the report.

It added that “this sector requires a particular effort to be made at all levels of policy planning and implementation to inform, amongst other things, resource allocation”. South Africa had approximately 21 million children aged 17 and younger in 2024, making up 33.3% of the total population. Nearly half of these children, 45.5%, lived with only their mother, while 18.8% lived with neither parent.

Stats SA found that 7,4% were paternal orphans and 1,5% were double orphans, figures that point to the fragile household structures many children are growing up in. Stats SA reported that “68.8% of children were beneficiaries of social grants” and that “about 30.6% of children lived in households without an employed adult”, a figure that climbed as high as 48.3% in the Eastern Cape. Hunger remained a daily reality for 16.3% of children nationally, rising to 23.3% in the Northern Cape and 22.6% in KwaZulu-Natal, with children in non-metropolitan areas faring worse at 18% compared to 13.3% in metro areas.

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On a more encouraging note, 98.6% of children of compulsory school age attended school in 2024. However, Stats SA noted that the most common reason cited among children aged 7-17 for not attending school was being satisfied with the level of education, while the second most common reason was no money for fees. South Africa’s youth aged 15 to 34 account for 33.6% of the population, making the country demographically young.

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