Poor people on the decrease in Namibia

Preliminary results of the Namibia household income and expenditure survey 2015/16 presented in Windhoek Thursday by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) shows an overall reduction in the number of poor people in the country.

The survey which was carried out from April last year until March this year shows that about 5.8 percent of the 2.3 million people in Namibia are extremely poor.

This has gone down when compared with the 2009/10 survey which showed that 7.3 percent of the population was extremely poor, meaning that the person was not able to spend at least 293 Namibian dollars (20 U.S. dollars) on basic necessities.

The results also show that about 11 percent of the population are severely poor with a disposable income of about 389 Namibian dollars (27 U.S. dollars) compared to results for the previous survey shows that in the 2009/10 survey 15 percent of the population was severely poor.

Those classified in the poor bracket with a disposable income of about 520 Namibian dollars (36 U.S. dollars) cover about 18 percent of the population compared to the 2009/10 survey where 28 percent of the population were classified in that bracket.

According to the Statistician General Alex Shimuafeni, this indicates that the initiatives being carried out by government to eradicate poverty by 2025 are working.

Namibia has committed itself to eradicating poverty by 2025.

The results also show a mild downward trend in inequality which in previous years has been reported to be very high.

Namibia's population in 2015 was estimated to be about 2.3 million people living in 517,648 households with an average size of 4.4 persons per household.

The majority of the household population (53 percent) lives in rural areas while 47 percent live in urban areas.

The most populated region is Khomas where 17 percent of the population lives, followed by Ohangwena and Omusati regions. Endit