East Cape shows some spirit(s) with highest spend on hard tack

THE Eastern Cape spends less on beer and wine than the other provinces do – but more on hard tack.

This is according to the latest figures released by Stats SA.

Earlier this month, statistician-general Pali Lehohla announced the mid-year estimates of the country’s population.

According to the numbers, the Eastern Cape spends 0.96% of household monthly expenditure on beer. This is merely a drop in the barrel when compared to the 3.35% spent by the North West province.

Even when comparing wine, the Eastern Cape spends less on wine and spirit coolers than the Western Cape.

The other side of the coin is that the Eastern Cape spends more than the country’s average on spirits.

The country’s average is 0.82% while the Eastern Cape spends 0.92% .

The stats further revealed that South Africans are living longer. In 2007, the midyear statistics revealed that life expectancy at birth was estimated at approximately 49 years for males and 52 for females.

This year, the figures have improved to 61.2 years for males and 66.7 for females.

Lehohla said the South African population had increased to 56.5-million people and the number of elderly people – 60 years and older – in the country had increased.

Stats SA revealed that there were 4.6 million South Africans over the age of 60.

Of the 4.6 million elderly folks, 12% were in the Eastern Cape.

The numbers also showed that almost 10% of the Eastern Cape’s population of 6 498 700 people were elderly.

Gauteng has 14 278 700 people and only 7.7% are elderly. Mpumalanga has the least number of elderly people, accounting for only 7% of their 4 444 200 population.

“Variations in age are particularly noticeable by population group in South Africa. Between 2002 and 2017, the proportion of elderly among black Africans increased by 0.5%, among coloureds by 2.7%; among Indians/ by 4.2% and among whites by 7.3%,” Stats SA said in a statement.

“The expansion of health programmes related to HIV has contributed to a decline in deaths,” the statement concluded. —