Every 5 years, Statistician-General Alex
Shimuafeni and his team at the Namibia Statistics Agency compile a Namibia
Household Income and Expenditure survey to allow government to align its
National Development Plans so as to match the demographics of the Namibian
nation. Luckily, this study is published, so we too can have a look at this
nation of ours.
From the report, we can see this data was
compiled via surveys given to 10 090 households. With the total households in
Namibia at 544 655, we can see that statistically, this survey should give
us an accurate representation of the entire population with a very low margin
of error, even at 99% confidence level (Theory of Interest: The Study
Scientific). From this, the NSA has estimated the population at
2 280 716 people.
As such, they can tell you that 66% of our
population is under 30 years of age, with only about 11.9% of the population
over 50 years of age. 51.4% of them are female, and 48.6% are male, with 54.1%
of the population now living in urban areas and only 45.9% living in rural
areas. Also interesting is that 62.8% of the country has never been married,
with the married (certificate or traditional) making up only 21% of the
population.
In terms of languages, 50.8% of the country
speaks Oshiwambo at home, with Nama/Damara at 12%, Rukavango at 11.8%,
Otjiherero at 8.9% and Afrikaans at 6.3%. We also have the unfortunate
statistic that 13.3% of children under 17 years of age, are orphans. When we
look at housing, we find out that 32.9% of the population lives in traditional
dwellings, with 30.6% in houses and 20.2 in improvised housing units.
Interestingly, this also results in 59.1% living on a plot they own without a
mortgage, with only 22.2% renting. 12.7% occupy the space for free, with only
5.8% of households having a mortgage.
When we dig down to energy usage, we find
that 48.6% of the country use firewood for cooking, with only 37.3% using
electricity and 10.3% gas. When it comes to lighting, 47.8% use electricity,
but 31.7% use batteries, and 11.2% still using candles. When it comes to water,
the situation at least looks better – 84.4% uses piped water, with 7.5%
dependent on boreholes or wells. Looking at education next, it is revealed that
87.4% of the country older than 15 years is literate, but 83.4% of
schoolchildren still walk to school. And while the cost of education per year
is on average N$ 1136.40 (with Khomas region the outlier at N$ 3 333 per
year), only 8.3% of pupils learn on a scholarship.
Now that we’ve got a good idea of what an
average household looks like, let’s delve into their economic situation. 53.6%
of the country earns a salary for income, with 11% on pension, 10.6% practising
subsistence farming, 9.6% subsisting on grants and 9.1% receiving business
incomes. 23% of households have debt, with 28.7% of that debt from cash loans,
12.5% from car loans and 6.9% from furniture and appliance debt.
In terms of assets, the most prevalent
asset is the cellphone, which 93.3% own. A radio is owned by 45.6% of the
population, followed by a television (42.5%), refrigerator (37.8%), freezer
(17.8%) and car (15.9%). Of interest here is the drop in certain assets
compared to the 2009/2010 NHIES, with the landline telephones dropping from 56%
of the population to 4.9%, and the radio dropping from 72% to 46%.
So what do we spend our incomes on? Well,
on average 36.3% goes to food and beverages, with 31.8% on housing, 7.5% on
transport and communication, 5.3% on furnishings and equipment and 4.2% on
clothes and footwear. And now the times has comes to examine the distribution
of income, and see how the average Namibian fares. The average Namibian
household now earns N$ 119 065 per year, or N$ 9922 per month.
How is this distributed? Well, the bottom
25% of the population earns N$ 27 301 per year, or N$ 2275 per month.
Those from 26% to 50% earns N$ 48 160 per year, or about N$ 4 013 per
month. Those from 51% to 75% earns N$ 75 540 per year, or about N$
6 295 per month. From 76% to 90%, earnings are N$ 123 911 per year on
average, or N$ 10 326 per month. In the 91% to 95% bracket, earnings are
N$ 202 523 per year or N$ 16 877 per month, and in the 96% to 98%
bracket, it’s N$ 335 875 per year or N$ 27 990 per month. Finally,
the top 1% earn N$ 733 245 per year or N$ 61 104 per month.
Quite skew, yes, but it’s slowly becoming
better. While we’re nowhere near the best in the world, our current GINI
coefficient (the measure of income inequality) is down to 0.56, from 0.58 in
2010 and down from 0.63 back in 1990. But perhaps more important is our fight
against poverty. And it’s clear from this data that we’ve made a resounding
dent in that area. Those living in food poverty has about halved during the
last 10 years, down from 11% to 6.1%, and when taking the upper poverty line,
it’s reduced from 37.5% of the population to about 17.4%. By any measure,
that’s good progress. Let’s use this data to see how we can help our fellow
citizens, now that we know a bit more about them, and try to improve this
picture so that the next NHIES report can have even more good news.
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