Poverty means different things to different people. There are many different
approaches to defining poverty but the basic needs approach is commonly applied,
particularly in developing countries where a bigger majority of the people struggle
to attain a predetermined minimum level of income to satisfy their basic needs. In
this study a survey questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 300
households in Bophelong township in Gauteng province during the second half of
2013. The aim of this article is to evaluate the impact that certain household and
individual characteristics (size of the household, gender of the head of the
household, etc.) can have in determining the poverty status of a household. A
binary logistic regression was used to analyse the data. The results show that the
education level of the head of the household, his/her employment status and age
were inversely related to poverty status. Improvements in the education level and
increases in the age of the head of the household were found to decrease the
probability of a household being categorised as poor. Households in which the
head of the household is employed have a lower probability of being categorised
as poor.