What can we learn about South African households from post-1994 census and health and demographic surveillance system data?

Mercy Shoko, Statistics South Africa
Mark Collinson, University of the Witwatersrand
Lesego Lefakane, Statistics South Africa
Kathleen Kahn, University of the Witwatersrand

Households are central to the demographic processes; fertility, mortality and migration. In South Africa; there are various sources of household data which vary on their enumeration methodology. Researchers have not however fully taken advantage of the availability of the multiple data sources for measuring demographic phenomena. The study uses the longitudinal data collected as part of the health and demographic surveillance system (HDSS) in Agincourt, a sub-district of Bushbuckridge situated in the Limpopo province of South Africa and the corresponding data from the recently available South African 2011 population and housing census data to provide information on household structure and composition. Additionally; the study uses the census data to check for any spatial patterns of household size over time and the Agincourt HDSS data to check for trends in household structure and composition from 1993 to 2011.The census is de facto based and the Agincourt HDSS is de jure based.