ERIC Number: EJ789903
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-May
Pages: 20
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0303-8300
EISSN: N/A
The Non-Economic Quality of Life on a Sub-National Level in South Africa
Rossouw, Stephanie; Naude, Wim
Social Indicators Research, v86 n3 p433-452 May 2008
Most research on the non-economic quality of life have been (a) on a national level or performed on cross-country comparisons, and/or (b) used subjective indicators to measure how people perceive their non-economic quality of life. In this paper, our main contribution is to construct objective indicators of the non-economic quality of life for 354 sub-national magisterial districts in South Africa. We also compare changes in these indicators over time, and consider methodological issues in the construction of objective indicators of non-economic quality of life. We find that although income does matter for the overall quality of life, non-income components of the quality of life can make an important difference. We find a number of places with low incomes that have been able to achieve higher than expected outcomes in terms of the non-economic quality of life, and that some of the relative income poor areas have improved their non-economic ranking between 1996 and 2004. We also find that the geographical/environmental quality of life in South Africa is better in non-urban areas, where fewer of the country's population is residing. Significant improvements in the overall quality of life may be achieved through improvements in the urban natural environment.
Descriptors: Low Income, Quality of Life, Urban Areas, Foreign Countries, Social Indicators, Comparative Analysis, Geographic Location
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A