Living Standards Measure

The Living Standards Measure or LSM is a marketing and research tool ( same as social economic class: SEC but more refined ) used in South Africa to classify standard of living and disposable income. It segments the population into ten deciles based on their relative means, with LSM 1 being the decile with the least means and 10 being the decile with the greatest means. It does this by ranking people based on ownership of the components of a standard basket of goods (which varies over time). For instance, those people who owned a television set would rank higher in the LSM than those who did not.^[1]

In effect, the LSM is an income inequality metric, despite specifically excluding income as one of the tested metric.^[2] Its components are reflective of the fact that South Africa has a high Gini coefficient.^[3]

Current variables

The current (2015) basket of variables used to calculate LSM is:^{[citation needed]}

• Metropolitan dweller (250 000+)
• Living in a non-urban area
• House / cluster house / town house
• Tap water in house / on plot
• Flush toilet inside house
• Hot running water
• Built in kitchen sink
• No domestic workers or gardeners
• Home security service
• 2 cellphones in household
• 3 or more cellphones in household
• Zero or one radio set in household
• Air conditioner (excl. fans)
• Television set(s)
• Swimming pool
• DVD player / Blu Ray player
• Refrigerator or combined fridge/freezer
• Electric stove
• Microwave oven
• Deep freezer – free standing
• Washing machine
• Tumble dryer
• Dishwasher
• PayTV (M-net / DSTV / TopTV) subscription
• Home theatre system
• Vacuum cleaner
• Motor vehicle in household
• Computer – desktop / laptop
• Land line telephone (excl. cellphone)