South Africa 2023 Wealth Comparison

Overview

How the three groups are defined

White Group contains the wealthiest 4,623,548 white people in South Africa. Non-White Group contains the same number of the wealthiest non-white people. Group 3 contains everyone who is not included in the first two groups.

01

White Group

4,623,548 people

7.54% of the national population.

02

Non-White Group

4,623,548 people

7.54% of the national population.

03

Remaining population

52,046,369 people

84.91% of the national population.

Comparison

Estimated wealth and asset distribution

The groups run from left to right, with the requested measures shown as rows.

South Africa 2023: three-group wealth comparison
Metric	White Group	Non-White Group	3. Remaining population
Number of people	4,623,548	4,623,548	52,046,369
Share of national population	7.54%	7.54%	84.91%
Share of total wealth	32.2%	43.8% Estimated	24.0%
Share of total wealth in Rand	R6.226 trillion	R8.469 trillion	R4.641 trillion
Average wealth per person in %	426.9%	580.6%	28.3%
Average wealth per person in Rand	R1,346,640	R1,831,765	R89,164
Share of total assets	19.7%	51.9% Estimated	28.4% Estimated
Estimated total assets in Rand	R4.370 trillion	R11.506 trillion	R6.305 trillion
Formal B-BBEE beneficiary eligibility proxy	0%	100%	100%
Access to B-BBEE wealth-growth mechanisms	No direct designated-beneficiary eligibility under the B-BBEE definition.	Formally eligible where citizenship requirements are met. Actual benefits for this custom group are not measured.	Formally eligible where citizenship requirements are met. Practical access and realised benefits are uneven and are not measured here.

“Average wealth per person in %” is an index where the South African average equals 100%; it is not a percentage share of national wealth.

Charts

Visual comparison

Select any chart to open the full-resolution image in a new browser tab.

Bar chart comparing the number of people in the three groups — Number of people

Bar chart comparing the share of total household wealth — Share of total wealth

Bar chart comparing average wealth per person relative to the South African average — Average wealth per person index

Bar chart showing a formal B-BBEE beneficiary eligibility proxy — B-BBEE formal eligibility proxy

B-BBEE chart limitation: The 0% and 100% values represent formal designated-beneficiary category eligibility only. They do not measure actual access, contracts, ownership transfers, income, or wealth gained.

Method

Calculation method and limitations

Wealth allocation

The report assigns 32.2% of household wealth to white households. Non-White Group receives 43.8%, calculated as 76.0% minus 32.2%.

Remaining wealth

Group 3 receives 24.0% of wealth, calculated as 100% minus 76%.

Asset estimate

After reserving the reported 19.7% white asset share, the remaining 80.3% was allocated between Groups 2 and 3 in proportion to their estimated wealth shares.

Households versus people

Momentum-Unisa measures household wealth, while Stats SA population figures count individuals. Per-person results are modelled approximations.

Population percentile mismatch

Groups 1 and 2 together contain approximately 15.09% of the population, not 10%. The 76% combined benchmark is therefore a requested scenario.

B-BBEE access

The chart shows formal beneficiary eligibility only. No official dataset used here maps realised B-BBEE wealth gains onto these three custom groups.

Follow-up discussion

What the comparison shows between Groups 1 and 2

This section records the main questions raised after the initial analysis, the answers developed with ChatGPT, and an important correction made during the discussion. It compares only the two custom, equal-sized groups defined on this page.

Direct comparison of the equal-sized White Group and Non-White Group
Measure	White Group: wealthiest 4.624 million white people	Non-White Group: wealthiest 4.624 million non-white people	What the model shows
Population	4,623,548	4,623,548	The groups are equal in size.
Modelled total wealth	R6.226 trillion	R8.469 trillion	Non-White Group holds about R2.243 trillion more.
Average wealth per person	R1,346,640	R1,831,765	Non-White Group averages about R485,125 more per person.
Average four-person household	Approximately R5,386,561	Approximately R7,327,062	Non-White Group averages about R1,940,501 more, or 36.0%.
Formal B-BBEE beneficiary eligibility	No direct designated-beneficiary status	Potentially eligible where the legal citizenship requirements are met	The formal eligibility advantage lies with Non-White Group.
Guaranteed monetary B-BBEE benefit	None established	None established	The available data cannot calculate an average Rand benefit received.

Direct finding

The model does not show a remaining wealth disadvantage for Non-White Group

Within this custom comparison, Non-White Group is wealthier on average than White Group and is also the group that may qualify for B-BBEE designated-beneficiary recognition. The measurable economic advantage in this model therefore lies with Non-White Group, not White Group.

Important correction

An earlier broader claim was withdrawn

ChatGPT initially referred to continuing racial inequality in favour of White Group. When asked to demonstrate that claim specifically between these two groups, it could not do so and corrected the record. The page now states the result supported by the model: Non-White Group has the higher average wealth.

Group averages

An average does not describe every household

Saying that Non-White Group is wealthier on average does not mean that every Non-White Group household is wealthier than every White Group household. Individual exceptions do not invalidate a comparison of group averages. The discussion used the Ramaphosa household as a simple illustration of this distinction.

Is it individually fair that Non-White Group may qualify while White Group does not?

From a present-day, household-by-household perspective, it is reasonable to question the fairness of preferring the modelled Non-White Group household when it is already approximately R1.94 million wealthier than the modelled White Group household. Current South African constitutional law nevertheless permits properly designed remedial measures under section 9(2); that does not make every racial distinction automatically fair or immune from review.

See the Constitution, section 9 and Minister of Finance v Van Heerden.

Does international law permit this type of racial distinction indefinitely?

ICERD permits special measures aimed at achieving substantive equality, but the UN Committee says that they should be necessary, proportionate, based on current evidence, monitored, temporary in character, and discontinued once their equality objectives have been sustainably achieved. A missing calendar expiry date is not automatically unlawful, but the absence of clear objectives, review criteria and an exit framework is a legitimate concern.

See ICERD and CERD General Recommendation No. 32.

Does this comparison prove that B-BBEE created Non-White Group's greater wealth?

No. Both groups are deliberately defined using the same selection rule: the wealthiest 4.624 million people in each racial category. The model shows Non-White Group’s greater average wealth and its potential B-BBEE eligibility, but it cannot determine how much wealth resulted from B-BBEE, inheritance, investment returns, education, business ownership, age, location or other factors.

Does rising inequality among black South Africans prove that B-BBEE caused the opposite of equality?

It supports a serious argument that the policy may be insufficiently broad-based or may concentrate opportunities among already advantaged beneficiaries. It does not, on its own, prove causation. A causal claim would require evidence linking particular B-BBEE rules and benefits to the measured change while separating the effects of unemployment, education, economic growth and other factors.

Conclusion limited to these two groups

As equal-sized groups in this model, Non-White Group is approximately 36% wealthier per person than White Group. Non-White Group may also qualify for designated B-BBEE recognition, while White Group is excluded from that recognition because it is white. The analysis therefore cannot identify any remaining average-wealth inequality in favour of White Group over Non-White Group. It also cannot quantify the actual B-BBEE benefit received by either household or claim that every household follows the group average.

Transparency

ChatGPT assistance and the original prompt

JusticeSA used ChatGPT by OpenAI to help retrieve and organise source data, perform the stated calculations, create the comparison table and charts, and prepare this bilingual web page. The assumptions and limitations are disclosed on this page, and readers should consult the cited primary sources.

AI assistance disclosure

How ChatGPT contributed

Created with ChatGPT assistance

ChatGPT assisted with research, arithmetic, modelling, wording, translation, spreadsheet preparation and chart generation. The grouping requested in the prompt is a custom analytical scenario and is not an official Stats SA, Momentum-Unisa or B-BBEE Commission classification.

Show the exact prompt used

The original prompt is reproduced below without rewriting:

There were about 4.624 million white people in South Africa in South Africa in 2023 according to Stats SA.
Retrieve the total number of white people from StatsSA for 2023.

Read the report from https://sls-fresco.momentum.co.za/files/documents/financial-wellness/momentum-unisa-household-wealth-q4-2023.pdf
I want you to concentrate on three groups in that report.
The 1st group constitute all white people in South Africa which you retrieved above. That group in that report is designated as "white".
The 2nd group constitute ONLY the top Wealthiest equivalent number of people that are not of the white group.
The 3rd group constitute the rest of South Africa which contains all people which are not in the 1st 2 groups.
Remember that 76% of the wealth is owned by the top 10% of people according to that report.

Now, using that information as well as other information on the internet, create a Comparative Table of the 3 groups.

Calculate as close as you can the following.
Number of people in the group.
Share of Total Wealth in %.
Share of Total Wealth in Rand.
Average Wealth per person in %.
Average Wealth per person in Rand.
Share of Total Assets.
Access to B-BEE Wealth Growth Trends.

Make sure the 3 groups are shown from left to right at the top.
Beneath that should be the following rows and the totals in the columns for each of the groups.
If that is not the case, transpose the rows and columns of the table

Create a bar chart comparing Number of people,
another comparing Share of Total Wealth in % ,
another comparing Average Wealth per person in %
and also a chart showing access to B-BBEE

According to the report 10% of people hold 76% of wealth. That leaves 24% for the rest

Sources

Primary references

Stats SA population projection workbook

Used for the unrounded 2023 total and white population counts.

Open Stats SA workbook

Stats in Brief 2023

Shows the rounded white population figure of approximately 4.624 million.

Open Stats in Brief

Momentum-Unisa Household Wealth Report Q4 2023

Used for household wealth, asset totals, racial shares and wealth concentration.

Open wealth report

B-BBEE Commission FAQ

Used for the formal definition of qualifying designated beneficiaries.

Open B-BBEE Commission guidance

Download the calculation workbook

Includes the table, formulas, sources and chart data.

Download Excel file

Important interpretation note

This page presents a transparent scenario based on the requested grouping and allocation assumptions. It is not a directly observed distribution of individual wealth by race or B-BBEE participation.