| South Africa can boast of a mixture of several races | | | | which is the proportion of people in a particular group |
| and cultures due to its historical background. Several | | | | or area falling below the poverty line, which actually |
| different population groups with different languages, | | | | measures how widespread poverty is for rural areas |
| cultural backgrounds and origins all reside in South | | | | is, 71%. The poverty gap was about R28 billion in 1995, |
| Africa. If one were to measure human development | | | | and 76% of this was accounted for by the rural areas. |
| by established standards such as life expectancy, | | | | When considering South Africa's poverty it is |
| infant mortality and adult illiteracy, South Africa would | | | | necessary that prevailing accounting systems are |
| compare unfavorably with many other middle-income | | | | investigated. In fact in many instances the national |
| countries of the world. These indicators also vary | | | | income of developing countries are not properly |
| widely by race group, gender and geographical location | | | | evaluated due to the fact that economic activity in |
| within the country. | | | | these places takes place outside the recorded sector. |
| Poverty can perhaps be defined as the inability to | | | | Commonly dubbed as the informal sector, these |
| attain a minimal standard of living, measured against | | | | activities are responsible for most economic activity in |
| basic consumption needs or the income which is | | | | South Africa. Of course, it does not appear in the |
| required to satisfy them. It is conventional to use a | | | | national income sheet because such transactions are |
| poverty line in order to reflect the monetary value of | | | | unrecorded! |
| consumption which separates the poor from the | | | | When considering South Africa's poverty relative to |
| non-poor. In the case of South Africa this can be | | | | the rest of the continent or perhaps even the western |
| defined by considering the poorest 40% of households | | | | nations, it is easy to devalue the culture of African |
| (about 19 million people or just fewer than 50% of the | | | | people. Many times when examining South Africa's |
| population) as poor. | | | | poverty people get caught up in the desolation of the |
| The majority of these poor people reside in rural areas. | | | | nationals. It is important to recognize the output of its |
| In fact although 50% of the population of South Africa | | | | people in order to attempt to alleviate poverty for this |
| is rural, the rural areas contain 72% of those members | | | | nation. |
| of the total population who are poor. The poverty rate, | | | | |