Figure 5: Distribution of households by household structure type (total SA population

Stats SA discusses that the disadvantages suffered by unwanted children may be in their health, early childhood development and potential future social and economic opportunities.9 Similarly for parents (especially mothers), unwanted births may, dependent on the mother’s age at birth, limit one’s education, and job and income prospects, with possible knock-on effects for many other aspects that perpetuate inequalities. It is notable that there is also two-way directionality here (fertility influencing income and income influencing fertility), with other studies finding that higher education and income lead to lower fertility levels. 11

Teenage births may have declined over time, but StatsSA shows that in 2020 alone, approximately 34,000 births were to women aged 17 and younger. These births are likely to cause education interruptions and later entry into the labour market. In the same year, it was found that more than 60% of all births were registered without the details of the father. This percentage may change alongside legislative changes and there may be many reasons for this phenomenon, including choices by individuals not to marry (until now prohibiting the father’s details to be included on the birth certificate).12 Nevertheless, it does raise the question of the prevalence of single parents and what implications this may have for poverty and inequality.

In relation to inequality, population growth may indeed play out in household formation and different types of households’ average income and poverty levels.

Figure 5 sets out the distribution of different types of households in South Africa in 2015, with 39% of South Africans living in extended family and/or non-related households and 11.9% of households being single-parent family households. Extended family/non-related households typically have larger sizes than the other households. Table 7 sets out the income per capita of each household structure. The median per capita monthly income of the extended and/or non-related households is the lowest of all household structure types at R1,283 per month, followed by single-parent family households at R1,462 per capita per month.

Population growth which manifests in extended family/non-related households and in single-parent families (often female-headed) contributes to inequality in that these households typically share a limited set of resources among a large group of people, tend to be grant reliant, and these types of households typically don’t have good labour market links.13 This type of household formation is both a result of poverty and inequality, as well as a contributor to future inequality.

Figure 5: Distribution of households by household structure type (total SA population) Source: Living Conditions Survey 2015