Older South Africans after Apartheid: The relationship between household income and race in adults over 50 in the Cape Area of South Africa

Abstract

The apartheid era in South Africa had such harsh polices against those who were nonwhite that the effect of those polices could still be reflected long after Nelson Mandela’s efforts to dismantle such policies during the post-apartheid years. In this paper we use the Cape Area Panel Study data for older adults to examine the predictors of the household income of older adult households (those 50 and older) from the Cape Area focusing on the personal characteristics and household conditions of older adult South Africans by race and sex. Results show differences in income and economic resources between whites, Coloureds, and Africans, with Africans having significantly lower income, being less likely to have a savings account and more likely to currently earning money. When examining the predictors of income for the different groups we found important differences among the difference racial groups, but also that being a single female headed household, currently earning money, number of rooms in the household, and number of consumer goods are related to income for all racial groups.