In this paper, we compare subjective and money-metric measures of poverty in South
Africa using data collected in the 2008/09 Living Conditions Survey. In addition to collecting
detailed information on expenditure, the survey asked respondents to provide an assessment of
the economic status of their household, ranging from ‘very poor’ to ‘wealthy’. We find considerable
overlap between per capita expenditure measures of poverty status and subjective poverty status
among households. However, we also identify a number of significant characteristics which
distinguish households where poverty measures do not overlap. These characteristics highlight not
only low dimensionality in expenditure measures of economic status, but also the likely
underestimation of economic resources in the household. This underestimation arises both
because poverty measures based on per capita expenditure do not recognize scale economies in
the household, and because the value of economic activity can be difficult to measure, as in the
case of subsistence farming.