Less Than 10 Percent of Citizens Are Middle Class

Jo-MarÉ Duddy

11 May 2011

ONLY 9,1 per cent of Namibia’s population falls into its middle class, living on between US$4 and US$20 a day, according to a study released by the African Development Bank (AfDB).

Converted by yesterday’s exchange rate, these nearly 200 000 Namibians get by on between N$27 and N$134 a day.

The size of Namibia’s middle class is ranked 25th, under the top bottom of the 44 African countries reviewed by the AfDB. Its report, ‘The Middle of the Pyramid: Dynamics of the Middle Class in Africa’, was released at the World Economic Forum on Africa last week.

Top of the list is Tunisia with 45,6 per cent of its population, while Lesotho is a the bottom – just 1,9 per cent of the country’s population falls into its middle class.

Namibia only outshone Zambia, with 5,6 per cent, as far as its reviewed neighbours are concerned.

South Africa and Botswana, with 19,8 per cent and 29,3 per cent respectively, fared significantly better, as did Angola with 13,2 per cent.

The AfDB split the middle-class into two: the lower-middle class, living on between US$4 and US$10 per day, and the upper-middle class with between US$10 and US$20 per day.

About 3,8 per cent of Namibia’s population falls into the lower-middle class, surviving on between N$27 and N$67 a day. The upper class, with between NS67 and N$134 daily, represents 5,3 per cent of the people.

According to the AfDB, 51,9 per cent of Namibians are poor, with 43,75 per cent having to make do with less US$1,25, or about N$8,40, per day.

The AfDB said some 61 per cent of Africa’s population fall below the US$2 poverty line, and 44 per cent below the US$1,25 poverty line.

“Access to employment and income generating opportunities could help such households to move up into the lower-middle class levels,” the bank said.

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