Cape Town collects its own household stats

Cape Town is striking out and doing its own statistical work, independent of Stats SA, including regular household surveys in the city and other statistical activities to get to grips with its growing service delivery needs.

Luthando Tyhalibongo, City of Cape Town spokesperson, told Business Times that the city’s vision is to conduct a large-scale household survey every three years to gain accurate and up-to-date socioeconomic data for all of its suburbs.

“Like all cities, Cape Town is an evolving landscape, and it is important for the city to be adaptable to constant change, specifically as it relates to our communities and residents, to ensure that we are both forward-thinking and responsive to the present challenges.”

Cape Town’s undertaking is gathering momentum at a time when service delivery is critical, especially in metropolitan municipalities facing an influx of inward migration ahead of November’s local government elections, where even the DA is facing robust campaigns and voter pressure.

Stats SA is also in the process of revamping its household survey programme through the introduction of the Continuous Population Survey, which seeks to provide statistical estimates at district and local municipal levels.

The institution has also grappled with a credibility storm relating to its census in 2024 following disputes with experts over the 2022 national census and funding challenges when the organisation sought R6bn from the National Treasury but only got R3bn at the time.

Tyhalibongo said that in a fast-growing and changing city, “we cannot rely on 10-year census data alone. The City of Cape Town’s household survey ensures the metro is planning with current, local and relevant information.”

He added: “The City of Cape Town is a strong supporter of Stats SA and relies extensively on the census and other surveys. Planning for the Cape Town household survey began before the release of the most recent census results. The primary motivation for initiating the Cape Town household survey was the need for more frequent socioeconomic data about communities within Cape Town than is currently available through national surveys.”

He said the challenges experienced in the latest census reinforced the importance of having complementary, locally generated data. The city’s household survey is designed to work alongside Stats SA’s census and datasets.

“While the national census provides important suburb-level detail, it is conducted only every 10 years, and interim Stats SA surveys are sample-based and cannot provide the level of local detail required for municipal planning. Rather than replacing official national statistics, it is intended to bridge the long intervals between censuses by providing more frequent, suburb-level socioeconomic data that remains comparable with Stats SA data sets.

“The survey has been specifically designed to align with and be comparable to Stats SA’s data products, enabling the city to use both sources together to gain a richer understanding of socioeconomic conditions across Cape Town.”

Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke told Business Times that Stats SA recognises that municipalities require timely and relevant data to support planning and service delivery and that the national statistics system has standards that have to be adhered to.

“Where organs of state undertake statistical collections, these should be co-ordinated and aligned with Stats SA’s South African Statistical Quality Assessment Framework [SASQAF], which provides the standards for producing quality, transparent and comparable statistics,” Maluleke said.

“The Statistics Act provides for institutions to produce statistics within the National Statistical System. Where statistics are intended to be recognised as official statistics, they must comply with the prescribed requirements, including the SASQAF standards, and undergo an independent quality assessment.”

Maluleke said that while Stats SA’s household surveys and the population census are designed to provide the information required for national planning, policy development and decision-making, it is recognised that a single national survey cannot address all local information or provincial needs.

“Statistics produced by municipalities and assessed against SASQAF standards can complement official statistics by addressing local information needs. However, they do not replace official statistics produced by Stats SA, including the population census.”

In the tender document itself, the City of Cape Town said household surveys have become the most important data source for demographic and socioeconomic statistics, as administrative systems are often incomplete and information gaps are large.

“Although [Stats SA] national surveys are valuable and of high quality, the City of Cape Town as a metropolitan municipality has limited influence on the types, forms and scale of surveys, alongside the questions, spatial representation, frequency and availability of the data.”

The memo said the general aim of the project is to obtain accurate, reliable, frequent, up-to-date and sub-metro level data on households in various dwelling unit types in Cape Town to inform metropolitan city planning, policies and decision-making.