The Quality of Metropolitan City Life in South Africa

In South Africa more than 32% of the population resides in only six metropolitan areas, and with rapid urbanization (exceeding 4% per annum) the quality of metropolitan city life will increasingly become an indication of the overall quality of life in the country. Some recent evaluations of the growth of South Africa’s urban areas have been negative, prophesizing increases in unemployment, poverty, crime and, environmental degradation. In this paper we construct an index for South Africa’s six metropolitan cities that consist of both economic and non-economic quality of life indicators, including measures of the quality of the environment and of life. By comparing how this index and its components have changed over the period 1996 to 2001 (and in some cases 2004) we are able to objectively evaluate city quality of life, and distinguish between the economic and noneconomic quality of life in the various cities. We also use regression analysis to determine the extent to which the various cities have been able to turn improvements in per capita incomes (economic wellbeing) into non-economic quality of life as reflected for instance in a better environment, higher literacy and longer lives.