Ward Profile Viewer relaunched with updated 2015 QoL data

The recently released 'Ward Profile Viewer' is an innovative GIS web application developed to view a wide range of socio-economic indicator-based ward-level data. It offers a comparative spatial view across the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) at a Gauteng, municipal or ward-level and can assist with identifying areas for targeted interventions. The Ward Profile Viewer complements the GIS viewer (which provides broad access to GCRO’s key GIS datasets) as a targeted simple-to-use application, and forms part of a broader suite of spatial visualisation applications, constituting the ‘GCR urban gallery’.

The main function of the Ward Profile Viewer is to provide a range of indicator data at the ward level, based on variables from the GCRO's 2015 Quality of Life (QoL) survey and the South African Multidimensional Poverty Index (SAMPI). The Ward Profile Viewer is currently based on 2011 ward boundaries. The underlying data and ward boundaries will be updated over time.

GCRO's biennial QoL survey measures the quality of life, socio-economic circumstances, attitudes to service delivery, psycho-social attitudes, value-base and other characteristics of the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). The 2015 GCRO QoL survey is the fourth in the series, and achieved a sample of 30 002 respondents from across the entire Gauteng province. The 2015 survey utilises the 2011 local election wards as the primary sampling units. Further information regarding the QoL survey can be found on the QoL IV project page or the interactive online data viewer.

The SAMPI, a measure of multidimensional poverty, is derived from Census 2011 data by StatsSA, and is computed on the basis of a set of eleven indicators spanning across four equally weighted dimensions including health, education, standard of living and economic activity. Further detail on SAMPI can be found on StatsSA website.

SAMPI individual indicators include:

• Child mortality: proportion of households where any child under the age of 5 died in the past 12 months.
• Years of school: proportion of households where no household member aged 15 or older has completed 5 years of schooling.
• School attendance: proportion of households where any school-aged child (aged 7-15) is out of school
• Fuel for lighting: proportion of households using paraffin/candles/nothing/other for lighting.
• Fuel for heating: proportion of households using paraffin/wood/coal/dung/other/none for heating.
• Fuel for cooking: proportion of households using paraffin/wood/coal/dung/other/none.
• Water access: proportion of households with no piped water in dwelling or on stand.
• Sanitation type: proportion of households with no flush toilet.
• Dwelling type: proportion of households living in an informal shack/tradition dwelling/caravan/tent/other.
• Asset ownership: proportion of households that do not own more than one of radio, television, telephone or refrigerator, or do not own a car.
• Unemployment: proportion of households where all adults (aged 15-64) in the household are unemployed.

The 2015 GCRO QoL survey data include:

• Dissatisfaction with local government: aggregated percentage of respondents who said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the performance of their local municipality.
• The country is going in the wrong direction: aggregated percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “The country is going in the wrong direction.”
• Cannot influence community development: aggregated percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “People like you cannot influence developments in your community.”
• Nobody cares about people like me: aggregated percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: “Nobody cares about people like me.”
• Victim of crime in past year: percentage of respondents who said ‘Yes’ to the question: “Have you been a victim of crime in the past year?”
• Quality of life index: index drawn on 58 variables comprising of subjective and objective indicator questions. See the 2015 QoL index launch brief for more detail.
• Marginalisation index: index drawn on 29 psychosocial and attitudinal variables.

The detailed ‘Ward Profile’ tab of the viewer also displays selected demographics variables from StatsSA Census 2011 per ward, including:

• Total ward population;
• Total ward population by age:
  
  • Age 0-19
  • Age 20-29
  • Age 30-39
  • Age 40-49
  • Age 50-59
  • Age 60-65
  • Age 66+;
• Total ward population by race:
  
  • African
  • Indian or Asian
  • Coloured
  • White
  • Other;
• Total ward population by gender:
  
  • Male
  • Female;
• Total number of households,
• Total number of households by dwelling type:
  
  • formal
  • informal;
• Mean annual household income per ward as a percentage of the mean income for Gauteng as a whole (see the July 2014 Map of the Month for more information on this variable).

The Ward Profile Viewer is developed to assist with understanding the social-economic status of different areas in Gauteng, not only for provincial and local government officials (including ward councillors), but also decision makers from the private sector, academics and the public in general.