General Household Survey 2009

South Africa, 2009

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Reference ID

zaf-statssa-ghs-2009-v1.4

Producer(s)

Statistics South Africa

Collections

South African Household Survey Data

Metadata

Documentation in PDF DDI/XML JSON

Created on

Oct 13, 2011

Last modified

Oct 22, 2020

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189878

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14927

Identification

Survey ID number

zaf-statssa-ghs-2009-v1.4

Title

General Household Survey 2009

Abbreviation or Acronym

GHS 2009

Country

Name	Country code
South Africa	zaf

Study type

Household Survey [hh]

Series Information

Statistics South Africa. General Household Survey 2009 [dataset]. Version 1.4. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer]. 2017. Cape Town. DataFirst [distributor], 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/9vjw-ex06

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

v1.4: Edited, anonymised dataset for public distribution

Version Date

2017

Version Notes

Version 1.2:

Version 1.2 contained weights for comparability across GHS 2002-2009. Person files were reweighted to reflect Community Survey 2007 results and update the estimates of the impact of HIV/Aids on demographic trends in South Africa. Household files were weighted independently of the person files in v1.2. The reweighting procedure was discussed in the report: "Reweighting of the GHS 2002-2008 data series".

From GHS 2009, the worker file will no longer be released as a separate data file, although information about respondents’ economic activities were still recorded and included in the person file.

The tourism file was retained in the GHS 2009 to help StatsSA verify the external validity of the first round of Domestic Tourism Survey. However, the GHS tourism file will be phased out from 2010.

Version 1.3:

Version 1.3 data files contain new weights for comparability across GHS 2002-2011 released at the same time as the GHS 2012 (22 August 2013). Reweighting was necessary in order to maintain the comparability of population estimates used in the GHS based on figures provided by the 2013 mid-year population estimation model that incorporates the demographic findings of Census 2011. Household files were weighted independently of person files.

In the household file v1.2, some households had the value of 888888 in the variable “q419rem”(remittance income). In v1.3, they were recoded to 0.

Mismatches were found in the following imputed variables between household file v1.2 and v1.3: "econact"; "totmhinc"

The following imputed variables were added to the household file v1.3: "totalgrnt"; "undisab"; "disab"; "sevdisab"

The following variables were added to the household file of v1.3: "stratum"; "geotype"; "metro"; "q142msal"

The person file v1.2 contained "q142msalcat", which was removed in v1.3.

The following imputed variables were added to the person file v1.3: "disab"; "sevdisab"; "literacy3b"

The following variables were added to the person file of v1.3: "stratum"; "geotype"; "metro"

In the tourism file v1.3, the variable "q213tran" contains a category labelled “7”. This category did not exist in the version 1.2.

Version 1.4:

Version 1.4 includes new weights for comparability across GHS 2002-2017 released at the same time as GHS 2017 (21 June 2018). It was decided to replace the 2013 series mid-year population estimation in the previous version with a the more recent 2017 series mid-year population estimation as benchmarks for weighting the GHS data files. Household files were weighted independently of person files.

Because the tourism file was not reweighted by StatsSA, we kept its version at v1.3.

Scope

Notes

The scope of the General Household Survey includes:

Individual characteristics: education, health, disability, welfare

Worker's characteristics: unemployment, non-economic and economic activities

Household information: tourism information for the household, 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.

Universe

The survey covered 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 students' hostels, old age homes, hospitals, prisons and military barracks.

Producers and sponsors

Primary investigators

Name
Statistics South Africa

Sampling

Sampling Procedure

A multi-stage, stratified random sample was drawn using probability-proportional-to-size principles. First level stratification was based on province and second-tier stratification on district council. The GHS 2009 represents the second year of a new master sample (the first year was GHS 2008) that will be used until 2010.

Survey instrument

Questionnaires

GHS uses questionnaires as data collection instruments

Data collection

Dates of Data Collection

Start	End
2009-07	2009-09

Data Collection Mode

Face-to-face [f2f]

Data Collectors

Name	Affiliation	Abbreviation
Statistics South Africa	Government of South Africa	Statssa

Data appraisal

Data Appraisal

The questionnaire for the General Household Survey has undergone various changes since 2002. Significant changes were made to the GHS 2009 questionnaire and this should be borne in mind when comparing across different datasets. See GHS 2009 statistical release for a detailed report on important differences between the questionnaires.

In GHS 2009-2010:

The variable on care provision (Q129acre) in the GHS 2009 and 2010 should be used with caution. The question to collect the data (question 1.29a) asks:

"Does anyone in this household personally provide care for at least two hours per day to someone in the household who - owing to frailty, old age, disability, or ill-health cannot manage without help?"

Response codes (in the questionnaire, metadata, and dataset) are:

1 = No
2 = Yes, 2-19 hours per week
3 = Yes, 20-49 hours per week
4 = Yes, 50 + hours per week
5 = Do not know

There is inconsistency between the question, which asks about hours per day, and the response options, which record hours per week. The outcome that a respondent who gives care for one hour per day (7 hours/week) would presumably not answer this question. Someone giving care for 13 hours a week would also be excluded as though they do that do serious caregiving, which is incorrect.

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

2020-10-21

Metadata version

DDI Document version

Version 5

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