Income and Expenditure Survey 2022-2023

South Africa, 2022 - 2023

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-ies-2022-2023-v1.2

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Income Survey Data

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Dec 19, 2025

Last modified

Jul 09, 2026

Page views

101389

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33508

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-ies-2022-2023-v1.2

Title

Income and Expenditure Survey 2022-2023

Abbreviation or Acronym

IES 2022-2023

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Income and Expenditure Survey

Abstract

The Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) is a household‑based survey that collects detailed data on acquisitions, consumption, spending, and income among South African households. Alongside the Living Conditions Survey (LCS), it forms part of Statistics South Africa’s household survey programme, which is essential for updating and reweighting the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to reflect evolving consumption patterns. These surveys also provide the most reliable data for assessing poverty and inequality. Previously, these two surveys were conducted on a rotating basis every 3-5 years, but due to funding limitations, Stats SA has not been able to conduct a new survey since the LCS 2014-2015.

The objectives of the IES are to: establish household income and expenditure profiles; identify and reweight the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket of goods and services based on household consumption patterns; provide inputs for developing and maintaining the household component of the National Accounts; update the country’s money‑metric, subjective, and multidimensional poverty profiles; revise inequality estimates; contribute to the rebasing of national poverty lines; and generate food security statistics. Going forward, the survey is planned to be fully integrated into the upcoming Continuous Population Survey (CPS) programme, along with the LCS and other Continuous Data Collection (CDC) surveys such as the General Household Survey (GHS) and Domestic Tourism Survey (DTS).

Kind of Data

sample survey data[ssd]

Unit of Analysis

The units of analysis in the survey are households and individuals

Version

Version Description

Version 1.2: Edited, anonymised dataset for licensed distribution

Version Date

2026

Version Notes

In the original IES 2022-2023 data (Version 1) the household identifier (UQNO) variable was unique as a string but non-unique when converted to a numeric variable (when using the Stata 'destring' command). In version 1.1 this variable has been converted to numeric while preserving the uniqueness of the identifier. Other variables that should be numeric were strings, and these have also been converted to numeric variables. Version 1.1 also has variable labels added where these were missing. A document is provided by DataFirst with more detail on the changes.

The version 1.2 data files have both string (UQNO) and numeric (UQNO_NUM) unique household identifier variables.

Scope

Notes

The survey measures the detailed income and expenditure of households in South Africa

Topics

Topic
Income
Expenditure
Consumption

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The survey had national coverage. The lowest level of geographic aggregation of the data is Province and Metropolitan municipality. Areas outside Metros are listed as ‘Non-Metros’ by Province.

Geographic Unit

Lowest level of geographic aggregation in the data is province.

Universe

The sample for the survey included all dwelling types (domestic households, holiday homes, and all households in workers' residences, such as mining hostels and dormitories for workers). It excluded institutions such as hospitals, prisons, old-age homes, student hostels, and dormitories for scholars. Boarding houses, hotels, lodges, and guesthouses were also excluded from the sample.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

A total of 3,324 Master Sample (MS) Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) were selected for the creation of an up-to-date GIF to be used in the selection of a systematic sample of dwelling units (DUs) for the survey. However, during the sampling process, it was realised that six (6) of the PSUs could not provide the sample due to a PSU being partly or completely demolished and the PSU count being shrunk at the time of unpacking as compared to the Census 2011 count. Consequently, the resulting sample drawn consisted of 31,042 dwelling units from the 3,318 PSUs.

Note to Researchers: The weighted number of households in the IES 2022/23 survey is 21,282,824, and not 19,050,732.016 reported in Section 10.9 of the IES 2022/23 metadata.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

The IES 2022-2023 employed three instruments to gather household information: a household questionnaire, two weekly diaries, and the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) codebook. Each instrument served a distinct function, collectively ensuring the collection of comprehensive data necessary for producing reliable income and expenditure estimates.

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End	Cycle
2022-11	2023-11	Round 6

Time Method

Cross-section [cross section]

Data Collection Mode

Face-to-face computer-assisted interviews [CAPI]

Data Collectors

Name	Affiliation	Abbreviation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa	StatsSA

Data Collection Notes

The IES 2022-2023 employed a mixed-methodology combining diary and recall approaches. Respondents were asked to record their daily acquisitions of non-durable, semi-durable, and durable goods, as well as services, in weekly diaries over two weeks. In addition, they were required to recall acquisitions of semi-durable and durable goods, along with selected services, for the 12 months preceding the survey month. Data collection was conducted primarily through Computer-Assisted Personal Interviews (CAPI). Where CAPI was not feasible, Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI) were implemented as a supplementary mode of data collection.

Data collection for data in the IES 2022-2023 Total data file:
Income data
COICOP income questions were asked of all income contributing persons in a household (see Section 26 of the IES 2022-2023 questionnaire). There can therefore be more than one observation for COICOP income data per household.

Expenditure data
In the IES 2022-2023 Total data file, the unit of observation for expenditure is not the household, it is the expenditure unit. This is because the expenditure data in the Total data file comes from expenditure Diaries as well as the questionnaire. The income data comes only from the questionnaire.

Expenditure information recorded in the IES 2022-2023 Statistical Release:
Data File: IES 2022-2023 Household
In the Statistical Release for the IES 2022-2023 information for the variables Expenditure and Expenditure_inkind related to owners' equivalent rent for housing and utilities expenditure is wrong. This is because SSA changed their methodology for calculating these items but did not update the information in the Release. Estimates for expenditure on rent for housing and utilities were originally based on rental yields. Stats SA subsequently used a regression method to calculate owners' equivalent rent.

access_policy

Access authority

Name	Affiliation	URL	Email
DataFirst	University of Cape Town		support@data1st.org

Access conditions

Creative Commons 4.0 CC-BY Attribution License.

Citation requirements

Statistics South Africa. Income and Expenditure Survey 2022-2023 [dataset]. Version 1.2. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2025. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/z52z-re15

Deposit requirements

Users of the data must send DataFirst a copy of or link to any publication based on the data.

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	Metadata Producer

Date of Metadata Production

2026-04-29

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 5

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