National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS)

Sample size: ~28 000 

Coverage: Nationally representative sample from across South Africa 

Included sections: Internal migration, birth and death, savings, health, education and spending patterns.

Data: The survey’s documentation and data for Wave 1 and Wave 2 are available from DataFirst.  The administrative dataset is also available for download.

Description 

The National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) is the first national household panel study in South Africa. It is part of an intensive multi-million rand effort on the part of the government to track - and understand - the shifting face of poverty.

In 2008 the first wave of data collection began when about 300 fieldworkers spread out in all nine provinces of the country in search of the 28 000 people that formed part of the 7305 selected households. The survey is designed to reveal information about internal migration, birth and death, savings, health, education and household spending patterns. The Wave 1 NIDS data was made public at the end of July in 2009.

The year 2010 marked the second wave of data collection, visiting the same respondents that were visited in 2008. Those that had moved from their original households were tracked if their movements were within the borders of the country. Data from Wave 2 was released in 2012.  Recently funding has been guaranteed for Wave 3.

For more information visit the NIDS website.