1NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)NAMIBIA HOUSEHOLD INCOME
AND EXPENDITURE SURVEY
(NHIES) 2015/2016
KEY POVERTY INDICATORS
(PRELIMINARY FIGURES)

www.nsa.org.na

Namibia Statistics Agency, P. O. Box 2133, Windhoek, FGI House, Post Street Mall

Tel: +264 61 431 3200

Fax: +264 61 431 3253

www.nsa.org.na

Mission Statement

In a coordinated manner we produce and disseminate relevant, quality and timely statistics that are fit-for-
purpose in accordance with international standards and best practice

Vision Statement
Be a high performance institution in statistics delivery

Core Values
Performance

Integrity
Service focus
Transparency

Accuracy
Partnership

2 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Acronyms
CAPI Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing
DRB Dairy Record Book
EA Enumeration areas
FPL Food poverty line
HPP Harambee Prosperity Plan
LBPL Lower bound poverty line
NDP National Development Plans NDPs
NDP4 Fourth National Development Plan
NDP5 Fifth National Development Plan
NHIES Namibia Household and Income and Expenditure Survey
NSA Namibia Statistics Agency
PSU Primary Sampling Unit
UBPL Upper bound poverty line
USAID United States Agency for International Development
WB World Bank

3NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Forward
Namibia has adopted a five year development
cycle called National Development Plans or simply
known as NDPs as well as a long term goal of Vision
2030. However, for any effective and meaningful
planning to take place the Government and other
developmental stakeholders need to have proper and
correct information on the socio-economic status of
the country. Relevant, quality and timely data are
required from surveys such as the Namibia Household
and Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES) as a
specialised study that can provide crucial statistics. In
2003/2004 it was decided to align the undertaking of
NHIES with the planning process of NDPs and conduct
the survey at 5 year regular intervals.

The country is now busy rounding up the Fourth
National Development Plan (NDP4) and one of its
key mandate is to expedite the implementation of
development strategy through a fresh approach.
The NDP4 life cycle ends in March 2017, while the
Fifth National Development Plan (NDP5) is being
developed. Furthermore, the implementation of the
Harambee Prosperity Plan (HPP) that was launched in
April 2016 has also started.

Therefore information from NHIES 2015/16 will be
used to evaluate and assess both plans to so see if
the government is achieving the intended nations
objectives. Similarly NHIES data is needed to provide
baseline data for poverty and income indicators during
the formulation of NDP5. The survey also serve as one
of the main sources of indicators for the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs).

This document presents preliminary results in tables
of key indicators needed for the completion of the
NDP5 and subsequently for the review of the NDP4.
It is hoped that the release will be of assistance to
planners, policy makers, researchers and the public in
general engaged in the drafting of the NDP5.

A detailed report titled the Namibia Household,
Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES) 2015/2016
Basic Report including methodologies and poverty
profiles and national and regional levels will be
published in February of 2017.

I would like to thank all participating households
whose co-operation was vital to the success of this
survey. My thanks also goes to the United States
Census Bureau through the USAID for their technical
support in data entry applications, as well as
the World Bank (WB) for technical
support in data analyses.

Alex Shimuafeni
Statistician-General

It is hoped that the release will be of assistance
to planners, policy makers, researchers
and the public in general engaged in the
drafting of the NDP5.

4 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Cautionary Note
The indicators released are
preliminary estimates. Though
significant changes are not
expected when the main report is
released, the reader is cautioned
that these figures are derived
from the ongoing data analysis
and therefore should be used with
care.

The final release of the main report
is scheduled for February 2017.

5NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

List of Tables and Figures
Table 1: Household and population by region and urban/rural .............................................................. 11
Table 2. Average household size over time by urban and rural ................................................................ 11
Table 3: Namibias poverty lines (current ND/adult/month), 2003/04-2015/16 ...................................... 12
Table 4: Selected inequality and poverty estimates, 2003/04-2015/16 ................................................... 12
Figure 1. Gini Coefficient over time ......................................................................................................... 13

Contents
Acronyms .................................................................................................................................................3
Forward .................................................................................................................................................4
Cautionary Note .......................................................................................................................................5
Contents ...................................................................................................................................................6
List of Tables and Figures ..........................................................................................................................6
Concepts and Definitions ........................................................................................................................7
1.Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 10

1.1. Survey Objectives ...............................................................................................................................10
2.Key Indicators .................................................................................................................................. 11

2.1. Household and Population..................................................................................................................11
2.2. Poverty Indicators ...............................................................................................................................12
2.3. Inequality Trends .................................................................................................................................13
2.4. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................13

Notes ..................................................................................................................................................... 14

6 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Concepts and Definitions
Primary Sampling Unit (PSU)
A Primary Sampling Unit (PSU) is a geographical area,
which was formed on the basis of the population in
Enumeration Areas (EAs) as a result of the Namibia
2011 Population and Housing Census.

Survey Round
A Survey round is a period of 15 days including 3 days
of listing, during which each interviewer was expected
to interview 6 households and the supervisor was to
administer daily record keeping for 12 households
selected for a particular selected Primary Sample Unit
(PSU).
Or
A Survey round consists of 15 consecutive days. This
includes the two week survey period plus a resting
day in-between.

Dwelling Unit
Dwelling unit is a building/structure where households
live. Its a place of residence occupied by one or more
households. Sometimes a household can occupy
more than one building/structure, in that case, these
structure are all considered as one dwelling unit
for the purpose of this survey. On the other hand,
households can occupy only part of the buildings/
structure; in that case, that building/structure
becomes the Dwelling unit for all households within
it. Buildings/structures can be classified into dwelling
units, living quarters other than dwelling units
(institutions) and non-dwelling units.

Households
A household usually consists of one or more persons,
related or unrelated, who live together in the same
homestead/compound, but not necessarily in the
same dwelling unit. They have a community of life with
common catering arrangements, and are answerable
to the same head of household. It is important to
remember that members who belong to the same
household need not necessarily be related in blood
or marriage.

Determination of a household is not easy. However,
the following examples are to guide in deciding who
should form a household:
i) A household may consist of one or more

persons and may occupy a whole building or
part of a building or many buildings in the same
compound/homestead.

ii) If two or more groups of people live in the
same dwelling unit, but have separate catering/
eating arrangements treat them as separate
households.

iii) A domestic worker who shares meals with
his/her employer should be included in his/
her employers household. However, if she/he
cooks and eats on his/her own or with his/her
family, treat her/him as a separate household.

iv) In a polygamous marriage (a man with more than
one wife), if the wives cook and eat separately,
the wives are treated as separate households.
But if the wives and their children share a
common kitchen (eating arrangements) are
treated as one household. The husband is listed
and counted in only one of the households, to
avoid double counting.

v) A boarder who lives with the main household
and who shares meals can be regarded as a
household member, although she/he pays for
the boarding and lodging and does not pool
income and does not share expenditures with
the household. The amount paid to the main
household in return for the accommodation
is recorded as expenditure (for the boarder)
and is also to appear as income (for the main
household).

vi) In cases where the household has recently
moved in and intends to stay it is interviewed
if selected. An example, if the entire household
was living in Keetmanshoop and it moved to
Mariental, and then the 6 month rule should be
interviewed if selected.

vii) People who are temporarily camping and
involved in long-term projects e.g. Home
Service, road construction workers etc. should
be listed provided the definition of households
applies.

7NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Head of household
The head of household is a person, either male or
female, who is looked upon by other members of the
household as their leader or main decision-maker.
The name of the actual head of household, whether
present or absent, is recorded. This person should be
aged 12 years and older.

Household Member
A household member includes the following two
categories of persons in the household-
i) All persons who usually live in the household

whether present or absent at the time of
the listing operation should be considered as
households members.

ii) Persons who are currently in the household but
only absent for a period less than six months
in the past 12 months should be considered as
usual members. However the persons who are
currently in the household but was absent for a
period six months or more, in the past 12 months
should not be considered as usual members.
The temporary visitors will fall into this second
category and hence are not usual household
members. The exceptions to this second rule
are the new born babies/adopted children/new
spouses etc. of the usual household members.

iii) On the other hand there can be persons who
are currently absent but were in the household
for more than six months during the past 12
months. Such persons should be considered
as usual members of the household who are
temporarily absent.

iv) In cases where a person has moved out of the
household permanently, even though he/she
stayed for 6 and more months, that person
should not be counted as a household member.

v) A new born baby and new spouse are counted
as usual household members if they are present
during listing and on the first day of interviewing.
If the new baby is born or new spouse come on
day 5 to day 14 of the survey round then they are
not considered us usual household members.

NB: Household is interviewed even if they
recently moved in the dwelling unit.

Institutions
There are cases where the definition of a household
does not apply. Sometimes groups of people live
together, but cannot be said to belong to a household
as defined earlier. Examples include hospitals, old age
peoples homes, nurses homes, schools/colleges,
hotels, army barracks, prisons, etc. These are
institutional populations and were not included in this
survey. However, staff who lived in the compound as
private households was listed. For example, a matron
who has her own private apartment in a nursing home
or soldiers in married quarters was listed.

Main source of income
Main source of income is based on the respondents
answer of what the household regards as its main
means of survival, which if taken away the household
would disintegrates or will cease to exist.

Poverty lines
A poverty line is a threshold set to distinguish or
classify persons or households as poor and non-poor.
Poverty measures and poverty lines are generally
either relative or absolute in nature. In Namibia the
choice is to use the absolute poverty lines which is
based on the cost of basic needs approach. The
computation of the poverty lines starts with the most
basic physiologic need which is the amount of calories
needed by an individual to lead a normal life (2100
kilocalories per day).

Three poverty lines are computed from the survey:
The food poverty line (FPL), the lower bound poverty
(LBPL) line and the upper bound poverty line (UBPL).
All poverty lines are measured in monetary values.

Food Poverty Line (FPL) - is the amount in Namibia
Dollars that is needed to buy the calories (2100 kcal/
day) for an individual to lead a normal life

Lower Bound Poverty Line (LBPL) - is the cut-off point
below which persons or households are classified as
severely poor

Upper Bound Poverty Line (UBPL) - is the cut-off point
below which persons or households are classified as
poor; it includes the severely poor

8 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient is a measure of equality or
inequality which has been adopted to measure income
inequalities in many countries around the World. The
measure takes two points: zero (0) and one (1) where
by a measure of 0 means total equality and 1 is total
inequality. In Namibia the Gini was 0.5971 or 59.71
percent in 2009/2010.

Per adult equivalent
It is generally taken that a child does not have the same
needs as an adult have, therefore for expenditure
and consumption measurements children are given
a lesser weight than adults. Three simple scales
are allocated to individuals depending on their
age: between 0 to 5 years are given 0.5 of an adult,
between 6 to 16 years are given 0.75 of an adult and
17 years plus are counted as 1 adult.

9NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

1. Introduction
The Namibia Household Income and Expenditure
Survey (NHIES) 2015/2016 is the fourth of this type of
surveys to be conducted in independent Namibia. It is
also the first NHIES to be carried out by the Namibia
Statistics Agency (NSA) as indicated in its strategic
priorities and objectives as stipulated in the Business
Plan for 2012/2013 to 2016/2017.

The NHIES 2015/2016 is a household based survey
designed to collect data on incomes and expenditure
patterns of households, therefore persons in
institutions were not covered in this survey. As the sole
source of information on incomes and expenditure in
the country the survey is used to compute poverty
indicators at household and individual levels. It also
serves as a statistical framework for compiling the
national basket items for the compilation of price
indices used in the calculation of inflation. It forms
the basis for updating prices or rebasing of national
accounts.

This survey consists of the following core modules:
labour force, health, education, income, expenditure
and housing. The survey was conducted over a period
of one year survey life-cycle that is aimed at correcting
seasonal indicators which are needed for planning
purposes. The survey will provide data on a quarterly
basis at national level on selected indicators while the
regional based indicators will be provided at the end
of the survey.

The NHIES 2015/16 is fully financed within the
Namibian Government development budget. The
technical support in the area of data processing
during the development of data entry and listing
applications was provided by experts from the United
States Census Bureau who were financially supported
by USAID. In addition, the experts from the World
Bank (WB) provided technical expertise during data
analysis.

1.1. Survey Objectives
The main objective of the NHIES 2015/2016 is
to provide social economic indicators to support
planning, policy formulation, decision making and
research and development for a knowledge based
economy in order to eradicate poverty and income
inequalities in Namibia.

It will describe the living conditions of Namibians using
actual patterns of consumption and income as well as
a range of other social and economic indicators.

10 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

2. Key Indicators

2.1. Household and Population
Namibias population in 2015 was estimated to be 2
280 716 people living in 517 648 households, with an
average size of 4.4 person per household as shown
in Table 1 below. The majority of the household
population (53 percent) lives in rural areas, while 47
percent in urban areas. Although the difference is not
much, the same trend was observed in 2009/10 with
62 percent in rural and 38 percent in urban areas.

The most populated region is Khomas where
17 percent of the population lives, followed by
Ohangwena and Omusati regions with a share of 11
percent each. Omaheke is the least populated region
with 3 percent of the population living there.

Table 1: Household and population by region and urban/rural

Region Households Population Average House-hold sizeNumber % Number %
!Karas 23 197 4.5 85 019 3.7 3.7
Erongo 51 907 10.0 175 752 7.7 3.4
Hardap 20 796 4.0 83 672 3.7 4.0
Kavango East 26 258 5.1 159 681 7.0 6.1
Kavango West 15 339 3.0 94 331 4.1 6.1
Khomas 104 954 20.3 393 830 17.3 3.8
Kunene 22 042 4.3 93 375 4.1 4.2
Ohangwena 46 205 8.9 253 961 11.1 5.5
Omaheke 18 436 3.6 68 037 3.0 3.7
Omusati 48 967 9.5 241 098 10.6 4.9
Oshana 40 600 7.8 178 468 7.8 4.4
Oshikoto 38 875 7.5 195 577 8.6 5.0
Otjozondjupa 36 679 7.1 151 552 6.6 4.1
Zambezi 23 394 4.5 106 361 4.7 4.5
Namibia 517 648 100 2 280 716 100 4.4
Urban 268 234 51.8 1 072 975 47.0 4.0
Rural 249 414 48.2 1 207 741 53.0 4.8

Source: Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES) 2015/2016

Table 2. Average household size over time by urban and rural

1993/1994 2003/2004 2009/2010 2015/2016
Namibia 5.7 4.9 4.7 4.4
Urban 4.8 4.2 4.1 4.0
Rural 6.1 5.4 5.2 4.8

Source: Estimates from the Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES) 2015/2016

11NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

2.2. Poverty Indicators
Table 3 shows the computed poverty lines using the
same methods for the three periods. The poverty
lines (both the lower and upper bound) are calculated
as the amount below which persons are classified
as severely poor or simply as poor. The figures are
adjusted for inflation effects.

For instance any person who was not able to at least
spend N$389.30 per month on basic necessities was
considered severely poor and if a person was not able
to at least spend N$520.80 per month on basic needs
was considered to be poor.

Table 3: Namibias poverty lines (current ND/adult/month), 2003/04-2015/16

Type of poverty line 2003/2004 2009/2010 2015/2016

FPL (Food poverty line) 127.15 204.05 293.1
LBPL (Lower bound poverty line) 184.56 277.54 389.3
UBPL (Upper bound poverty line) 262.45 377.96 520.8

Table 4 summarizes a selection of the main findings.
Most poverty indicators suggest that poverty has
further decreased during the last five years. In total
132 282 persons cannot afford to buy the minimum
(2100 kcal) calories per day.

From the table 4 below 11.0 percent of the population
(250 879) are still below the lower bound poverty line
while 18.0 percent of the population (410 529) are
below the upper bound poverty line.

Table 4: Selected inequality and poverty estimates, 2003/04-2015/16

2003/04 2009/10 2015/16 diff. (%) diff. (%) diff. (%)
(1) (2) (3) (2) - (1) (3)- (2) (3) - (1)

Population 1,817,251 2,066,398 2,280,716 13.7 10.4 26.0
Per capita expenditure (monthly) 2,068 2,210 3,071 7.0 39.0 49.0
Per adult equivalent expenditure 2,213 2,376 3,343 7.0 41.0 51.0
(2015/16 ND per month)

Inequality

Gini Index (%) 60.0 59.7 57.2 -1.0 -4.0 -5.0
Food Poverty Line
Headcount ratio (%) 9.0 7.3 5.8 -18.9 -20.5 -35.6
Lower Poverty Line
Headcount ratio (%) 21.9 15.3 11.0 -30.0 -28.0 -49.8
Upper Poverty Line
Headcount ratio (%) 37.7 28.7 18.0 -24.0 -37.3 -52.0

12 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

2.3. Inequality Trends
Figure 2. shows the trend of the Gini index over the
period 2003/04 to 2015/16. Two important facts are
observed.

First, inequality in Namibia is high, by any standards.
Second, inequality shows a mild downward trend.

Figure 1. Gini Coefficient over time

G
in

i i
nd

ex
(%

)

Survey year

2003-04 2015-162009-10

56

58

60

62

60
59.7

57.2

2.4. Conclusion
The overall poverty levels has reduced significantly with 10.7 percent points (from 28.7 to 18.0) while the
inequality in income distribution remains high with a slight reduction of 2.5 percent points from the previous
survey of 2009/2010 to the survey of 2015/2016.

13NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

14 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Notes

15NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

16 NHIES 2015/2016 - Key Poverty Indicators (Preliminary Figures)

Namibia Statistics Agency

P.O. Box 2133, FGI House, Post Street Mall,
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: +264 61 431 3200
Fax: +264 61 431 3253
Email: info@nsa.org.na
www.nsa.org.na

Scan to find more statistics

information about Namibia
Like us on Facebook:
facebook.com/NamibiaStatisticsAgency

Follow us on Twitter:
@namstatsagency

Subscribe to us on YouTube:
youtube.com/namstatsagency