The Community Survey is a nationally representative, large-scale household survey which is designed to provide information on the extent of poor households in South Africa, their access to services, and levels of unemployment, at national, provincial and municipal levels. The main objectives of the survey are: 1. To fill data gaps between national population and housing censuses 2. To provide estimates at lower geographical levels than existing household surveys 3. To build capacities for the next census round 4. To provide inputs to the mid-year population projections.

Abstract

The Community Survey is a nationally representative, large-scale household survey which is designed to provide information on the extent of poor households in South Africa, their access to services, and levels of unemployment, at national, provincial and municipal levels. The main objectives of the survey are: 1. To fill data gaps between national population and housing censuses 2. To provide estimates at lower geographical levels than existing household surveys 3. To build capacities for the next census round 4. To provide inputs to the mid-year population projections.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of South Africa.

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

The Community Survey covered all de jure household members (usual residents) in South Africa. The survey excluded collective living quarters (institutions) and some households in EAs classified as recreational areas or institutions.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sampling procedure that was adopted for the Community Survey was a two-stage stratified random sampling process. Stage one involved the selection of enumeration areas, and stage two was the selection of dwelling units. Since the data are required for each local municipality, each municipality was considered as an explicit stratum. The stratification is done for those municipalities classified as category B municipalities (local municipalities) and category A municipalities (metropolitan areas) as proclaimed at the time of Census 2001. However, the newly proclaimed boundaries as well as any higher level of geography, such as province or district municipality, were considered as any other domain variable based on their link to the smallest geographic unit - the enumeration area.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The CS 2016 questionnaire consisted of six main sections, 11 sub-sections and a total of 225 questions. A first draft of the paper questionnaire was developed in February 2015 and various versions were reviewed and updated thereafter based on discussions with stakeholders. The target population of the survey was all persons in the sampled dwelling who were present on the reference night (i.e. the night between 6 and 7 March 2016). The final CAPI questionnaire was made up of three person rosters. One roster was utilised for the person information, one roster for emigration and one roster for mortality.

Abstract

The Community Survey is a nationally representative, large-scale household survey which is designed to provide information on the extent of poor households in South Africa, their access to services, and levels of unemployment, at national, provincial and municipal levels. The main objectives of the survey are: 1. To fill data gaps between national population and housing censuses 2. To provide estimates at lower geographical levels than existing household surveys 3. To build capacities for the next census round 4. To provide inputs to the mid-year population projections.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of South Africa.

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

The Community Survey covered all de jure household members (usual residents) in South Africa. The survey excluded collective living quarters (institutions) and some households in EAs classified as recreational areas or institutions.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sampling procedure that was adopted for the CS was a two-stage stratified random sampling process. Stage one involved the selection of enumeration areas, and stage tw0 was the selection of dwelling units. Since the data are required for each local municipality, each municipality was considered as an explicit stratum. The stratification is done for those municipalities classified as category B municipalities (local municipalities) and category A municipalities (metropolitan areas) as proclaimed at the time of Census 2001. However, the newly proclaimed boundaries as well as any other higher level of geography such as province or district municipality, were considered as any other domain variable based on their link to the smallest geographic unit - the enumeration area.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The CS 2016 questionnaire consisted of six main sections, 11 sub-sections and a total of 225 questions. A first draft of the paper questionnaire was developed in February 2015 and various versions were reviewed and updated thereafter based on discussions with stakeholders. The target population of the survey was all persons in the sampled dwelling who were present on the reference night (i.e. the night between 6 and 7 March 2016). The final CAPI questionnaire was made up of three person rosters. One roster was utilised for the person information, one roster for emigration and one roster for mortality.

Data appraisal

The Community Survey 2016 data was released in 2017. There are four data files. These are files for households, persons, mortality, and emigration. The emigration file is currently not available. Statistics SA has not provided an explanation for the missing file. DataFirst is working to obtain this file, and will add the data file to the dataset we publish once we have it.

The Community Survey 2016 is also missing employment and income data. Data on employment type and employment status data was collected with questions 3.7.6 - 3.7.6.24 of the questionnaire. Income data was collected with questions 3.7.7. - 3.7.7.4. According to Statistics SA, the data from these questions was not released because changes in collection methodologies resulted in this data not being comparable with the employment and income data in the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.

Abstract

The Community Survey (CS) is a nationally representative, large-scale household survey which was conducted from February to March 2007. The Community Survey is designed to provide information on the trends and levels of demographic and socio-economic data, such as population size and distribution; the extent of poor households; access to facilities and services, and the levels of employment/unemployment at national, provincial and municipality level. The data can be used to assist government and the private sector in the planning, evaluation and monitoring of programmes and policies. The information collected can also be used to assess the impact of socio-economic policies and provide an indication as to how far the country has gone in its strides to eradicate poverty.

Censuses 1996 and 2001 are the only all-inclusive censuses that Statistics South Africa has thus far conducted under the new democratic dispensation. Demographic and socio-economic data were collected and the results have enabled government and all other users of this information to make informed decisions. When cabinet took a decision that Stats SA should not conduct a census in 2006, it created a gap in information or data between Census 2001 and the next Census scheduled to be carried out in 2011. A decision was therefore taken to carry out the Community Survey in 2007.

The main objectives of the survey were: · To provide estimates at lower geographical levels than existing household surveys; · To build human, management and logistical capacities for Census 2011; and · To provide inputs into the preparation of the mid-year population projections.

The wider project strategic theme is to provide relevant statistical information that meets user needs and aspirations. Some of the main topics that are covered by the survey include demography, migration, disability and social grants, educational levels, employment and economic activities.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of South Africa, including all nine provinces as well as the four settlement types - urban-formal, urban-informal, rural-formal (commercial farms) and rural-informal (tribal areas).

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

The Community Survey covered all de jure household members (usual residents) in South Africa. The survey excluded collective living quarters (institutions) and some households in EAs classified as recreational areas or institutions. However, an approximation of the out-of-scope population was made from the 2001 Census and added to the final estimates of the CS 2007 results.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

Sample Design

The sampling procedure that was adopted for the CS was a two-stage stratified random sampling process. Stage one involved the selection of enumeration areas, and stage tow was the selection of dwelling units.

Since the data are required for each local municipality, each municipality was considered as an explicit stratum. The stratification is done for those municipalities classified as category B municipalities (local municipalities) and category A municipalities (metropolitan areas) as proclaimed at the time of Census 2001. However, the newly proclaimed boundaries as well as any other higher level of geography such as province or district municipality, were considered as any other domain variable based on their link to the smallest geographic unit - the enumeration area.

The Frame

The Census 2001 enumeration areas were used because they give a full geographic coverage of the country without any overlap. Although changes in settlement type, growth or movement of people have occurred, the enumeration areas assisted in getting a spatial comparison over time. Out of 80 787 enumeration areas countrywide, 79 466 were considered in the frame. A total of 1 321 enumeration areas were excluded (919 covering institutions and 402 recreational areas).

On the second level, the listing exercise yielded the dwelling frame which facilitated the selection of dwellings to be visited. The dwelling unit is a structure or part of a structure or group of structures occupied or meant to be occupied by one or more households. Some of these structures may be vacant and/or under construction, but can be lived in at the time of the survey. A dwelling unit may also be within collective living quarters where applicable (examples of each are a house, a group of huts, a flat, hostels, etc.).

The Community Survey universe at the second-level frame is dependent on whether the different structures are classified as dwelling units (DUs) or not. Structures where people stay/live were listed and classified as dwelling units. However, there are special cases of collective living quarters that were also included in the CS frame. These are religious institutions such as convents or monasteries, and guesthouses where people stay for an extended period (more than a month). Student residences - based on how long people have stayed (more than a month) - and old-age homes not similar to hospitals (where people are living in a communal set-up) were treated the same as hostels, thereby listing either the bed or room. In addition, any other family staying in separate quarters within the premises of an institution (like wardens' quarters, military family quarters, teachers' quarters and medical staff quarters) were considered as part of the CS frame. The inclusion of such group quarters in the frame is based on the living circumstances within these structures. Members are independent of each other with the exception that they sleep under one roof.

The remaining group quarters were excluded from the CS frame because they are difficult to access and have no stable composition. Excluded dwelling types were prisons, hotels, hospitals, military barracks, etc. This is in addition to the exclusion on first level of the enumeration areas (EAs) classified as institutions (military bases) or recreational areas (national parks).

The Selection of Enumeration Areas (EAs)

The EAs within each municipality were ordered by geographic type and EA type. The selection was done by using systematic random sampling. The criteria used were as follows: In municipalities with fewer than 30 EAs, all EAs were automatically selected. In municipalities with 30 or more EAs, the sample selection used a fixed proportion of 19% of all sampled EAs. However, if the selected EAs in a municipality were less than 30 EAs, the sample in the municipality was increased to 30 EAs.

The Selection of Dwelling Units

The second level of the frame required a full re-listing of dwelling units. The listing exercise was undertaken before the selection of DUs. The adopted listing methodology ensured that the listing route was determined by the lister. Thisapproach facilitated the serpentine selection of dwelling units. The listing exercise provided a complete list of dwelling units in the selected EAs. Only those structures that were classified as dwelling units were considered for selection, whether vacant or occupied. This exercise yielded a total of 2 511 314 dwelling units.

The selection of the dwelling units was also based on a fixed proportion of 10% of the total listed dwellings in an EA. A constraint was imposed on small-size EAs where, if the listed dwelling units were less than 10 dwellings, the selection was increased to 10 dwelling units. All households within the selected dwelling units were covered. There was no replacement of refusals, vacant dwellings or non-contacts owing to their impact on the probability of selection.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

Consultation on Questionnaire Design Ten stakeholder workshops were held across the country during August and September 2004. Approximately 367 stakeholders, predominantly from national, provincial and local government departments, as well as from research and educational institutions, attended. The workshops aimed to achieve two objectives, namely to better understand the type of information stakeholders need to meet their objectives, and to consider the proposed data items to be included in future household surveys. The output from this process was a set of data items relating to a specific, defined focus area and outcomes that culminated with the data collection instrument (see Annexure B for all the data items).

Questionnaire Design The design of the CS questionnaire was household-based and intended to collect information on 10 people. It was developed in line with the household-based survey questionnaires conducted by Stats SA. The questions were based on the data items generated out of the consultation process described above. Both the design and questionnaire layout were pre-tested in October 2005 and adjustments were made for the pilot in February 2006. Further adjustments were done after the pilot results had been finalised.

Cleaning operations

Editing The automated cleaning was implemented based on an editing rules specification defined with reference to the approved questionnaire. Most of the editing rules were categorised into structural edits looking into the relationship between different record type, the minimum processability rules that removed false positive readings or noise, the logical editing that determine the inconsistency between fields of the same statistical unit, and the inferential editing that search similarities across the domain. The edit specifications document for the structural, population, mortality and housing edits was developed by a team of Stats SA subject-matter specialists, demographers, and programmers. The process was successfully

Abstract

The Community Survey (CS) is a nationally representative, large-scale household survey which was conducted from February to March 2007. The Community Survey is designed to provide information on the extent of poor households in South Africa, and their access to services, and levels of unemployment, at national, provincial and municipal levels.

The main objectives of the survey were: 1. To fill data gaps from the absence of a national population census in 2006 2. To provide estimates at lower geographical levels than existing household surveys 3. To build capacities for conducting Census 2011 4. To provide inputs to the mid-year population projections.

Geographic coverage

The survey covered the whole of South Africa, including all nine provinces as well as the four settlement types - urban-formal, urban-informal, rural-formal (commercial farms) and rural-informal (tribal areas).

Analysis unit

Households

Universe

The Community Survey covered all de jure household members (usual residents) in South Africa. The survey excluded collective living quarters (institutions) and some households in EAs classified as recreational areas or institutions. However, an approximation of the out-of-scope population was made from the 2001 Census and added to the final estimates of the CS 2007 results.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

Sample Design

The sampling procedure that was adopted for the CS was a two-stage stratified random sampling process. Stage one involved the selection of enumeration areas, and stage tw0 was the selection of dwelling units. Since the data are required for each local municipality, each municipality was considered as an explicit stratum. The stratification is done for those municipalities classified as category B municipalities (local municipalities) and category A municipalities (metropolitan areas) as proclaimed at the time of Census 2001. However, the newly proclaimed boundaries as well as any other higher level of geography such as province or district municipality, were considered as any other domain variable based on their link to the smallest geographic unit - the enumeration area.

The Frame

The Census 2001 enumeration areas were used because they give a full geographic coverage of the country without any overlap. Although changes in settlement type, growth or movement of people have occurred, the enumeration areas assisted in getting a spatial comparison over time. Out of 80 787 enumeration areas countrywide, 79 466 were considered in the frame. A total of 1 321 enumeration areas were excluded (919 covering institutions and 402 recreational areas). On the second level, the listing exercise yielded the dwelling frame which facilitated the selection of dwellings to be visited. The dwelling unit is a structure or part of a structure or group of structures occupied or meant to be occupied by one or more households. Some of these structures may be vacant and/or under construction, but can be lived in at the time of the survey. A dwelling unit may also be within collective living quarters where applicable (examples of each are a house, a group of huts, a flat, hostels, etc.).
The Community Survey universe at the second-level frame is dependent on whether the different structures are classified as dwelling units (DUs) or not. Structures where people stay/live were listed and classified as dwelling units. However, there are special cases of collective living quarters that were also included in the CS frame. These are religious institutions such as convents or monasteries, and guesthouses where people stay for an extended period (more than a month). Student residences - based on how long people have stayed (more than a month) - and old-age homes not similar to hospitals (where people are living in a communal set-up) were treated the same as hostels, thereby listing either the bed or room. In addition, any other family staying in separate quarters within the premises of an institution (like wardens' quarters, military family quarters, teachers' quarters and medical staff quarters) were considered as part of the CS frame. The inclusion of such group quarters in the frame is based on the living circumstances within these structures. Members are independent of each other with the exception that they sleep under one roof. The remaining group quarters were excluded from the CS frame because they are difficult to access and have no stable composition. Excluded dwelling types were prisons, hotels, hospitals, military barracks, etc. This is in addition to the exclusion on first level of the enumeration areas (EAs) classified as institutions (military bases) or recreational areas (national parks).

The Selection of Enumeration Areas (EAs)

The EAs within each municipality were ordered by geographic type and EA type. The selection was done by using systematic random sampling. The criteria used were as follows: In municipalities with fewer than 30 EAs, all EAs were automatically selected. In municipalities with 30 or more EAs, the sample selection used a fixed proportion of 19% of all sampled EAs. However, if the selected EAs in a municipality were less than 30 EAs, the sample in the municipality was increased to 30 EAs.

The Selection of Dwelling Units

The second level of the frame required a full re-listing of dwelling units. The listing exercise was undertaken before the selection of DUs. The adopted listing methodology ensured that the listing route was determined by the lister. Thisapproach facilitated the serpentine selection of dwelling units. The listing exercise provided a complete list of dwelling units in the selected EAs. Only those structures that were classified as dwelling units were considered for selection, whether vacant or occupied. This exercise yielded a total of 2 511 314 dwelling units. The selection of the dwelling units was also based on a fixed proportion of 10% of the total listed dwellings in an EA. A constraint was imposed on small-size EAs where, if the listed dwelling units were less than 10 dwellings, the selection was increased to 10 dwelling units. All households within the selected dwelling units were covered. There was no replacement of refusals, vacant dwellings or non-contacts owing to their impact on the probability of selection.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

Questionnaire Design The design of the CS questionnaire was household-based and intended to collect information on 10 people. It was developed in line with the household-based survey questionnaires conducted by Stats SA. The questions were based on the data items generated out of the consultation process described above. Both the design and questionnaire layout were pre-tested in October 2005 and adjustments were made for the pilot in February 2006. Further adjustments were done after the pilot results had been finalised.

Data appraisal

The Community Survey results were released on 24 October 2007. After the evaluation of the data by the Stats Council, the Community Survey was found to be comparable in many aspects with other Stats SA surveys, censuses and other external sources. However, there are some areas of concern where Statistics South Africa is urging users to be more cautious when using the Community Survey data.

The main concerns are:

·The institutional population is merely an approximation to 2001 numbers and it is not new data. ·The measure of unemployment in the Community Survey is higher and less reliable due to the differences in questions asked relative to the normal Labour Force Surveys. ·The income includes unreasonably high income for children due to presumably misinterpretation of the question, e.g. listing parent's income for the child. ·The distribution of households by province has very little congruence with the General Household Survey or Census 2001. ·The interpretation of grants or those receiving grants need to be done with caution. ·Since the Community Survey is based on random sample and not a Census, any interpretation should be understood to have some random fluctuation in data, particularly concerning the small population for some cells. The user should understand that the figures are within a certain interval of confidence.

Users should be aware of these statements as part of the cautionary notes:

·The household estimates at municipal level differ slightly from the national and provincial estimates in terms of the household variables profile; ·The Community Survey has considered as an add-on an approximation of population in areas not covered by the survey, such as institutions and recreational areas. This approximation of people could not provide the number of those households (i.e. institutions). Thus, there is no household record for those people approximated as living out of CS scope; ·Any cross-tabulation giving small numbers at municipal level should be interpreted with caution such as taking small value in given table's cell as likely over or under estimation of the true population; ·No reliance should be placed on numbers for variables broken down at municipal level (i.e. age, population group etc.). However, the aggregated total number per municipality provides more reliable estimates;

·Usually a zero total figure (excluding those in institutions) reflects the fact that no sample was realised and in such cases this is likely to be a significant underestimate of the true population. ·As an extension from the above statement, in a number of instances the number realised in the sample, though not zero, was very small (maybe as low as a single individual) and in some cases had to