South Africa – the Rise of the Black Middle Class

Black Yuppies or Black Bourgoisie have become common terms used for South Africa's new black middle class. More and more black South Africans are managing to make the leap out of poverty and into the middle class, imparting South Africa with new confidence.

Whereas the average purchasing power of South Africa's white population is around 8000 euros per year, which is only barely under Slovenia's level, the average black inhabitant has only around 1,000 at their disposal per year. However, the situation of the black population has improved markedly since the abolition of Apartheid in 1994: starting at 35% in 1993, the black majority's share of the country's purchasing power has climbed to almost 50% by 2009.

Around 3 million people currently belong to the black middle class. This result is attributable to not only the positive economic development of the past years, but also to targeted assistance measures by blacks. The average per capita income in South Africa is around 2,000 euros per year and is just as high as that in Serbia, for instance.

With a retail trade volume of around 44 billion euros or around 900 euros retail trade turnover per capita, South Africa's retail trade markets appears to still be in infancy. In Austria the per capita value stands at around 6,700 euros. Yet Western European countries can only dream of double-digit growth rates, unlike South Africa, which experienced them for 5 consecutive years from 2003 to 2008.