Quality of Life survey viewer (Survey 5, 6 and 7)

Quality of Life Survey viewer

Access the Quality of Life survey viewer by clicking here. The survey viewer includes QoL 7 Survey (2023/24), QoL 6 Survey (2020/21) and QoL 5 Survey (2017/18) data. GCRO launched the results of the Quality of Life 5 Survey (2017/18) in November 2018 and the results of Survey 6 (2020/21) in September 2021. The most recent iteration, QoL 7 (2023/24) was launched on 22 October 2024.

The biennial Quality of Life (QoL) survey, first conducted in 2009, measures the quality of life, socio-economic circumstances, attitudes to service delivery, psycho-social attitudes, value-base and other characteristics of the GCR. It serves as a tracking and diagnostic tool, affording a rich information resource for policy makers and the public wanting to see where progress is being made, and where concerns remain.

In order to facilitate broader access to QoL survey results, at a variety of spatial levels, the GCRO has partnered with OpenUp, to develop the QoL viewer. The viewer highlights key findings from the last three QoL surveys in an intuitive and easy to navigate web application. The viewer also allows users to focus on certain geographic areas of interest and see the results for a selection of variables for that area. The QoL viewer includes two main sections, the Rich Data view and the Data Mapper view.

Rich data view

The Rich Data view will be open the first time you visit the QoL viewer. It includes sections for Demographics, Households, Access to services, Economy, Safety, Political attitudes, Social attitudes, Community attitudes, Health, Transport, and Quality of Life Index. Each section consists of further sub-sections where key variables and findings from the surveys are highlighted, through various graphs. The graphs and the data ‘behind’ the graphs can be downloaded in various formats (JPEG, CSV, EXCEL, and JSON). The default results are for the entire Gauteng province, and are based on all the respondents that participated in the QoL 7 Survey (2023/24). The survey year filter variable can be used to view QoL 6 Survey (2020/21) and QoL 5 Survey (2017/18) data. This filter is available for all graphs. The results that are visible in this view change when a different geography is selected in the Data Mapper view. For example, when selecting the City of Ekurhuleni, the data in the Rich Data view changes to represent only the results from respondents in the City of Ekurhuleni.

Data mapper view

The Data Mapper view also defaults to the Gauteng province and the QoL 7 Survey (2023/24). Other local geographies can be selected by simply clicking on the area on the map. The QoL viewer includes results at the following spatial levels: Province, District municipality, Local municipality, and Metropolitan municipality. Additionally, for the three Metropolitan municipalities (Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg and Tshwane), planning regions are included as a further spatial level. Results can be mapped at these various geographies by selecting a variable in the list of variables on the left of the page in the Data Mapper view.

Data notes

The GCRO Quality of Life (QoL) survey is a large-scale household survey, which interviews respondents in each ward of Gauteng province. Residential dwellings and adult respondents are randomly sampled in each ward in Gauteng. The QoL sample is weighted to Census 2011, updated by Community Survey 2016 and other population estimates, using population group and gender. Consequently, the weighted population group and gender breakdowns are aligned to these data sets. All results presented are weighted, and expected to be broadly representative of the adult population.

On graphs, where percentage counts do not add up to 100% it is due to the rounding of percentage counts. Users who are interested in detailed calculations can download the data file related to each graph (click the three-striped icon in the top right above the graph) or users can download the full dataset from DataFirst. 

GCRO Quality of Life survey datasets

The questionnaires, data, and documentation for our most recent survey (QoL 7 Survey 2023/24) as well as previous surveys (2009, 2011, 2013/14, 2015/16, 2017/18 & 2020/21) are available for download through DataFirst: https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/GCRO.

Our data is shared under a CC-BY 4.0 license, meaning that it is free for use. Data should be cited using the citation provided on the DataFirst website. Work produced using the GCRO Quality of Life datasets should be shared with the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (Email: info@gcro.ac.za).

Questions and feedback

Questions and feedback about the QoL survey viewer are welcome and can be directed to info@gcro.ac.za.