ZamStats

Findings from the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey

The world today is characterized by increasing and ever-changing demand for statistics of different frequency and, sustained development will mainly depend on the extent to which countries such as ours will use statistical evidence to make informed decisions at all levels be it government, non-government and individual. With this realization, the Zambia Statistics Agency (Zamstats) has continued to undertake this survey in an effort to meet the expectations of various data users including government. As a common adage goes “IF YOU CAN’T MEASURE IT, YOU CAN’T MANAGE IT”. We need to create a knowledge society whose decisions are based on strong statistical evidence rather than feelings, hearsay or perceptions. we need to go beyond recognising numbers but knowing what to do with the numbers.

Zambia Statistics Agency conducted the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey in June/July of the year 2022 and covered 8,470 households in 420 randomly selected Enumeration Areas (EAs) across the 10 provinces of Zambia. The survey estimated a total population of 19,610,769 million, with 60 percent of that residing in rural areas. The survey estimated a total of 3,861,557 households, with an average household size of 5.1 persons.
Survey results indicate 31.4 percent of population was economically active (in the labour force), while 68.6 percent was economically inactive. Analysis by s*x shows that 34.8 percent of males and 28.4 percent of females were in the labour force. Results further show that unemployment rate was estimated at 13.1 percent. Females had a higher unemployment rate (14.9 percent) than their male counterparts at 11.5 percent. The agriculture, forestry and fishing industry had the highest proportion of employed persons at 37.2 percent. The water supply, sewerage, waste management industry, information and communication and extraterritorial organization and bodies had the least proportions of the less than 0.1 percent each. Monthly average income for households in rural areas was K2,112.2 while that of households in urban areas was K5,546.6.
The survey estimated that the top 10 percent of households earned 56 percent of total household incomes while the bottom 50 percent earned seven percent of the total household incomes. In rural areas, households spent 56.4 percent of their incomes on food and 43.6 percent on non-food expenditure items, while in urban areas expenditure on food amounted to 34.7 percent of household incomes and non-food expenditure amounted to 65.3 percent.
Survey results show that 60 percent of the population was living below the national poverty line at the time of the survey (78.8 percent in rural areas and 31.9 percent in urban areas). Further, the survey shows that 48.0 percent of the population were extremely poor. Overall results show that 588 out of every 1000 male-headed households compared to 634 out of every 1000 female-headed households were poor at national level. This implies that out of every 100 households, female-headed households were more likely to be poorer than households headed by their male counterparts
Analysis by Residence shows that 63.0 percent of households in rural areas had access to safe water while 91.9 percent of households in urban areas had access to safe water. At provincial level, Lusaka Province had the highest percent of households with access to safe water at about 96.1 percent and Northern Province had the lowest percent of households with access to safe water at 39.9 percent. There was a decline in the proportion of households who treated or boiled their drinking water at national level from 24.7 percent to 21.7 percent. About 33.8 percent of households in rural areas had connection to an electricity source while 66.2 percent were not connected. In urban areas 80.2 percent of households had connection to an electricity source while 19.7 percent were not connected At national level, 33.9 percent of households used electricity as a main source of lighting energy. This was followed by torch, used by 31.1 percent of the households. At national level, 49.3 percent of the households used collected firewood as the main source of cooking energy; followed by purchased charcoal with 35.8 percent and electricity.

Photos shown below were taken during the dissemination of the LCMS findings at TAJ Pamodzi

Photo Credit: Cecilia Mubambe/UNDP Zambia

You may access the reports of the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) and the Child Poverty report on the links below:

LCMS:https://www.zamstats.gov.zm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/2022-LCMS-Report-2022.pdf

Child Poverty Report:https://www.zamstats.gov.zm/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Child-Poverty-Report-2023.pdf

Results show that households on the Copperbelt, Lusaka and North-western provinces were the highest earning at K6,353; K5,644.80 and K4,881.00, respectively. However, households in Muchinga were the least earning at K1,271.10. The average monthly income of households in Eastern, Luapula, Muchinga and Northern provinces were at least 1.8 percentage-points below the
national average K3,442.90

Source: 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report

Average Household income by Rural/Urban, Zambia, 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey Report

The average monthly household income distribution in Kwacha by rural/urban and National shows that average monthly household income in Zambia was K3,442.90. Further, average monthly household income of households in urban areas was almost double that of households in rural areas, (i.e K5,546.60 against K2,112.20), respectively

Percentage Distribution of the Top 10 most commonly reported Main illnesses in Urban areas, Zambia, 2022.

Percentage Distribution of the Top 10 most commonly reported Main illnesses in Rural areas, Zambia, 2022

10 Most Commonly reported main illness

Results from the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey shows that at national level, 31.4 percent cited malaria as the main cause of illness reflecting the largest proportion while 28.8 percent cited cough/cold/chest infection as their main cause of illness
represented the second largest proportion.

Net Attendance rates by level of Education of Household and Poverty status

School Attendance Rates by Education Level, S*x and Rural/Urban, Zambia 2022.

School Attendance Rates by Education Level and S*x, Zambia 2022.

School Attendance Rates by Level of Education, Zambia 2022.
Source: 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS)

Sample Design for the Living Conditions Monitoring Survey

2-stage stratified cluster sample design
Nationally representative sample of 420 EAs
Sample size : About 8,400 non-institutionalized households
Number of households selected in each EA:
Rural : 20 + Any Large Scale Agric-Household
Urban : 20 households
Response rate: 98 percent

Key Objectives of 2022 LCMS

Monitor the level of poverty and its distribution in Zambia;

Monitor the impact of Government policies & programmes on the welfare of the population in Zambia;

Provide various users with a set of reliable indicators with which to monitor progress and development; and

Identify vulnerable groups in society and enhance targeting

Join us today 17th July 2024 at 08:30 hrs as we disseminate the findings of the 2022 Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) and the 2023 Child Poverty Report

Commemoration of the World Population Day at Government Complex

World Population Day 2024: The global population is expected to continue increasing steadily, with projections indicating it may reach around 9.7 billion by 2050 and possibly peak at nearly 10.4 billion in the mid-2080s, according to the UN. This represents the growth of almost 2 billion people within the next three decades.

In 2022, Zambia’s population was 19,693,423.

Zambia joins the rest of the World in Commemorating World Population Day, 11th July 2024

World Population Day is commemorated annually on 11th July. This Year's theme is EMBRACING THE POWER OF INCLUSSIVE DATA TOWARDS A RESILIENT AND EQUITABLE FUTURE FOR ALL.

World Population Day, which seeks to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues, was established by the then-Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme in 1989, an outgrowth of the interest generated by the Day of Five Billion, which was observed on 11 July 1987.

By resolution 45/216 of December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly decided to continue observing World Population Day to enhance awareness of population issues, including their relations to the environment and development.

The Day was first marked on 11 July 1990 in more than 90 countries. Since then, a number of a number of UNFPA country offices and other organizations and institutions commemorate World Population Day, in partnership with governments and civil society.

Household Headship by S*x of Head and Province, Zambia 2022

There were more male headed households as opposed to female headed ones.

The highest percentage of female headed households was recorded in Western Province at 41.4 percent. The rest of the provinces had less than 30 percent of female headed households (See Figure below).

AVERAGE HOUSEHOLD SIZE

The average household size is a measure of the number of persons per household.

According to the 2022 Census, the average household size in Zambia was 4.8 people per household. The average household size was higher in rural areas at 5.0 compared with urban areas at 4.6 The average household size has declined in the past 12 years from 5.2 persons per household in 2010 to 4.8 persons per household in 2022 (See Figure below).

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS IN ZAMBIA

The are 4,087,031 households. Lusaka Province had the largest number of households in 2022 with 689,781, followed by Copperbelt Province with 582,029. Muchinga Province had the smallest number with 196,556 households

HOMELESS POPULATION BY PROVINCE

The homeless population was found in only four out of the 10 provinces; Central, Copperbelt, Lusaka and Southern.

Lusaka Province had the largest number of the homeless population with 1,918, followed by Copperbelt Province with 1,427. Southern Province had the smallest number of the homeless population with 31 people.

HOMELESS POPULATION IN ZAMBIA

A homeless household is a person or group of persons who have no permanent living arrangement or do not have a fixed place of abode. The members of the homeless household live on the streets or any place they can find shelter for a short period of time.

Results from the Census indicate that homelessness is an urban phenomenon in Zambia, no homeless population was recorded in rural areas. The homeless population is shown in the Figure. There were 4,063 homeless persons in Zambia as of 8th September 2022. Of this total, 2,231 were males and 1,832 were females.

The 2022 Census of Population summary report with population figures at the lowest administrative level is now available both in soft and hard copy . You can access the report from our website on www.zamstats.gov.zm

The Zambia Statistics Agency at the Trade Fair