The salary you need to be in the top 1% in South Africa

Anybody with a gross salary of higher than R1.5 million is considered ultra-rich in South Africa, as they fall into the top 1%.

This is revealed by the National Treasury data on individuals and taxable income for the 2027 financial year.

The phrase ‘The Top 1%’ is a statistical and economic term referring to the most affluent 1% of the given population.

This measure serves as a central baseline in discussions about wealth inequality, economic mobility, and tax policy.

This term can be applied to many aspects of wealth, including net worth and annual income earned through salaries, bonuses, and taxable investment income.

Net worth is complex to calculate as it refers to total accumulated assets, including real estate, stocks, and cash, minus all personal liabilities and debt.

A much easier measure is annual income, as people know how much they earn, which can be compared with that of other members of a population.

Calculating how much a person needs to earn to be in the top 1% in South Africa is easy, as you only need the total population and salary scales.

Statistics South Africa’s (StatsSA’s) latest data showed that the country has 42.2 million people of working age.

South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates, which means that anyone who works is automatically richer than most adults.

To put the data into perspective, of the 42.2 million working-age individuals, 25.2 million make up the active labour force.

The remaining 17 million people of working age are not economically active. They include students, discouraged job seekers, and caregivers.

The Top 1% in South Africa are the 252,000 to 422,000 adults with higher salaries than 99% of the adult population.

The National Treasury’s data on individual taxable income shows that, to fall into this group, people need a gross salary package of over R1.5 million.

There are 267,761 South Africans with an annual taxable income above R1.5 million, making them the ultra-rich in South Africa.

It is interesting to note that anyone with an annual salary package above R350,000 is in the top 10% of South Africa’s population.

The table below shows the salary scales and the percentage of the working-age population to which each salary corresponds in South Africa.