Quality of life studies: Insights and analysis
Quality of Life (QoL) is a complex concept that is defined and interpreted differently by various disciplines in the social sciences, health, and medicine. The field of QoL studies is well established globally and growing in the sub-Saharan African subcontinent. A constraint to the field's development in Africa is the lack of relevant large-scale data, a gap the uniquely constituted GCRO QoL Surveys commendably address.
This project is designed to leverage the rich QoL Survey data from the GCRO to conduct a series of discreet papers aimed at understanding the multidimensional well-being of populations in the African urban context. Over time, the core of this project is intended to transform to include technical and methodological papers relating to QoL and the production of relevant datasets.
Outputs
Academic publications
Ndagurwa, P., & Miles-Timotheus, S. (2025). Fear in progress? Correlates of feeling (un)safe in an urban population in Gauteng, South Africa, Cogent Social Sciences, 11:1, 2574400, https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2025.2574400.
Akokuwebe M.E., Likoko S., Miles-Timotheus S., & Mabala M. (2025). Gender dimensions of quality of life: The determinants of life satisfaction among South Africans residing in the Gauteng province—Using a multilevel psychodemographic analysis of the GCRO’s quality of life survey (2009–2024). PLoS One, 20 (9): e0332626. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0332626.
Marinda E, Naidoo Y, Magampa M, Pindo A, Ngungu M, & Qonono K, et al. (2025). Changes in quality of life over time through the lens of young people aged 18–24 in 2016 in Gauteng Province of South Africa. PLoS One, 20 (12): e0338312. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0338312.
Ndagurwa, P. and Miles-Timotheus, S. 2024. Quality of Life in the Gauteng Province of South Africa: Is the sex of the household head important? Southern African Journal of Demography, Volume 23, Issue 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/27344208
GCRO outputs
Seedat, R., & Miles-Timothues, S. (2025). Geography of contentment: Life satisfaction across wards in Gauteng. GCRO Map of the Month, November 2025. Gauteng City-Region Observatory, Johannesburg. https://doi.org/10.36634/BAVH7282.
Sango, A. (2025). Mapping Social Assistance in Gauteng. GCRO Map of the Month, Gauteng City-Region Observatory, May 2025. https://doi.org/10.36634/GERE9006.
Ndagurwa, P., Miles-Timotheus, S. and Hamann, C. (2024). Quality of Life disparities within wards in Gauteng, GCRO Map of the Month, Gauteng City-Region Observatory, December 2024. https://doi.org/10.36634/QSUT4001.
Ndagurwa, P., Naidoo, L. and Miles-Timotheus, S. (2023). The distribution of male-headed and female-headed households in Gauteng. Map of the Month. Gauteng City-Region Observatory. March 2023. https://doi.org/10.36634/TJJG2755.
Last updated: 24 February 2026.
