Cape Town unveils groundbreaking household survey results for data-driven City planning
25 September 2025
The City is pleased to announce the release of findings from its inaugural city-wide Cape Town Household Survey, conducted between February and October 2024. This landmark initiative represents a significant step forward in the City’s commitment to data-driven decision-making, inclusive governance, and responsive service delivery for all residents.
The survey, which engaged over 8 000 households across the city, from formal residences to informal settlements and backyard dwellings, provides a detailed and representative portrait of the lives and experiences of Cape Town's diverse communities. The data encompasses essential socio-economic indicators, including housing conditions, education levels, mobility patterns, access to essential services, household income and expenditure and overall vulnerability.
Explore the Data Yourself: Interactive Public Dashboard
To ensure accessibility and transparency, the City has launched a user-friendly, public-facing dashboard allowing residents, researchers, community organisations, and policymakers to explore the data at a suburb level. The dashboard features interactive visualisations, downloadable data sets, and clear, concise summaries, making it a powerful tool for understanding and addressing local needs.
Key insights from the Cape Town Household Survey:
Detailed Socio-Economic Profiles: Gain a comprehensive understanding of household income, expenditure, and service access across different suburbs or dwelling types, including formal dwellings, informal settlements, and backyard units.
Mobility & Resilience: Insights into how residents move around the city, their ability to cope with challenges, and their perceptions of well-being.
Suburb-Level Comparisons: Data aligned with national datasets (Census and Stats SA) enabling comparisons and informing targeted interventions to address specific local needs.
Understanding Urban Change: The survey reveals valuable insights into the growth of informal dwellings and rental units, allowing the city to plan for future infrastructure needs.
‘This survey is a game-changer for Cape Town, it provides the granular, timely data we need to plan better, respond faster, and build a more inclusive and resilient city. We’re incredibly grateful to the residents who participated and invite everyone to explore the dashboard and discover the story of Cape Town through data,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
The completion of this household survey marks a new chapter in Cape Town's journey towards effective and inclusive urban development. The City plans to conduct this survey every two to three years, directly supporting the vision of a ‘City of Hope’ by actively listening to residents, identifying service gaps, and promoting equity throughout Cape Town.
City Manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo, said, ‘These survey results are already shaping our work. We now have suburb-level insights into how households are meeting their basic needs – access to water, sanitation, energy, and waste management. We can also better understand household characteristics, travel patterns, and the challenges residents face, such as rising living costs, crime, and the impact of extreme weather events. This data will inform targeted programmes to address these pressing social and economic challenges and build resilience within our communities.’
Data resources available
In addition to the interactive dashboard, the following data resources are available on the Open Data Portal:
Household characteristics
Household head demographics
Basic services data
Shapefile of suburb boundaries
Questionnaire
• Contact
CapeTown.Survey@capetown.gov.za
Caption: City Manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo; Tyler Moorhead, Project lead; Moeneeb Abass, Head Research Analytics; Kayleen Simpson, Manager: Research Policy and Strategy; Portfolio Chair for Future Planning and Resilience, Cllr Patricia van der Ross; Executive Director Future Planning and Resilience, Gareth Morgan; and Deputy Mayor, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
