Black South Africans Grow Share of Top Income Bracket

Rising remuneration among Black South Africans has dramatically changed the racial makeup of the country’s band of middle- and top-income earners over the course of three decades of democratic rule, a new study has found.

The proportion of White households that made more than 75,000 rand ($4,672) a month fell to 41% in 2024, down from 61% in 2012, while the share of Black households in that bracket climbed to 41% from 29% over the period, the study by the University of Cape Town’s Liberty Institute of Strategic Marketing found. It based its analysis on data from the national statistics agency’s general household survey.