General Household Survey 2012

South Africa, 2012

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-ghs-2012-v2.1

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Household Survey Data African Centre of Excellence for Inequality Research

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Oct 21, 2013

Last modified

Nov 01, 2020

Page views

178891

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7660

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-ghs-2012-v2.1

Title

General Household Survey 2012

Abbreviation or Acronym

GHS 2012

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Household Survey [hh]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. General Household Survey 2012 [dataset]. Version 2.1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2017. Cape Town. DataFirst [distributor], 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/jpfy-2g79

Abstract

The GHS is an annual household survey specifically designed to measure the living circumstances of South African households. The GHS collects data on education, employment, health, housing and household access to services.

Kind of Data

Sample survey data

Unit of Analysis

Households and individuals

Version

Version Description

v2.1: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2017

Version Notes

Version 1:

Version 1 of the General Household Survey 2012 was downloaded from Statistics South Africa's website in 2013.

Weights in GHS 2012 v1 are based on figures provided by the 2013 mid-year population estimation model that incorporates the demographic findings of Census 2012. Household files are weighted independently of person files.

Version 2:

Following the initial release of GHS 2012, Statistics South Africa re-issued the data files. GHS 2012 v2 contains the files that were re-issued.

Note that only the household data file was revised, and the weights were not changed.

The following variables were revised by StatSA in the household file: q412agrant; q412anon; q412bmain; totmhinc

Version 2.1:

Version 2.1 includes revised weights. This version was released at the same time as GHS 2017 (21 June 2018). It was decided to replace the 2013 mid-year population estimation series in the previous version with the more recent 2017 mid-year population estimation series as benchmarks for weighting the GHS data files. Household files were weighted independently of person files.

In this version, the weight variable in the person file is called "person_wgt".

Mismatches were found in the variable "q422lan" between the household file v2 and v2.1.

Scope

Notes

The scope of GHS includes:

Demographic information: name, sex, age, population group, etc.

Biographic information: education, health, disability, welfare

Tourism information: non-remunerated trips undertaken in the 12 months prior to the survey.

Household information: type of dwelling, ownership of dwelling and other assets, electricity, water and sanitation, environmental issues, services, transport, expenditure etc.

Coverage

Geographic Coverage

The survey is representative at national level and at provincial level.

Geographic Unit

The lowest level of geographic aggregations is province. The information of geo-type and metro is also present in the data.

Universe

The survey covers all de jure household members (usual residents) of households in the nine provinces of South Africa and residents in workers' hostels. The survey does not cover collective living quarters such as student hostels, old age homes, hospitals, prisons and military barracks.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name	Affiliation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

The sample design for the GHS 2012 was based on a master sample (MS) that was originally designed for the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) and was used for the first time for the GHS in 2008. This master sample is shared by the QLFS, GHS, Living Conditions Survey (LCS), Domestic Tourism Survey (DTS) and the Income and Expenditure Surveys (IES).

The master sample used a two-stage, stratified design with probability-proportional-to-size (PPS) sampling of primary sampling units (PSUs) from within strata, and systematic sampling of dwelling units (DUs) from the sampled PSUs.

Weighting

Mid-year population estimates produced by the Demographic Analysis division were used for benchmarking.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

GHS uses questionnaires as data collection instruments

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2012-07	2012-09

Data Collection Mode

Face-to-face [f2f]

Data Collectors

Name
Statistics South Africa

Data appraisal

Data Appraisal

In GHS 2009-2015:

The variable on land size in the General Household Survey questionnaire for 2009-2015 should be used with caution. The data comes from questions on the households' agricultural activities in Section 8 of the GHS questionnaire: Household Livelihoods: Agricultural Activities. Question 8.8b asks:

“Approximately how big is the land that the household use for production? Estimate total area if more than one piece.” One of the response category is worded as:

1 = Less than 500m2 (approximately one soccer field)

However, a soccer field is 5000 m2, not 500, therefore response category 1 is incorrect. The correct category option should be 5000 sqm. This response option is correct for GHS 2002-2008 and was flagged and corrected by Statistics SA in the GHS 2016.

access_policy

Access authority

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

Access conditions

Public use files, available to all

Citation requirements

Contacts

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

Metadata production

Producers

Name	Affiliation	Role
DataFirst	University of Cape Town	Metadata Producer

Date of Metadata Production

2020-10-31

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 6

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