In this paper, we revisit ‘what and who’ is middle class in South Africa using data collected
in the 2008 National Income Dynamics Study. First we consider how to identify the middle class
based on two broad definitions adopted in the international literature: a middle class defined by
the middle share of the national income distribution; and a middle class defined by an absolute
level of affluence and lifestyle. We explore alternative ways of capturing the ‘middle strata’ of
the national income distribution; and we suggest an approach for identifying threshold levels
of income associated with middle-class affluence. Second, we show that both the size and the
composition of the middle class in South Africa are very sensitive to how the middle class is
defined. In particular, we demonstrate that there is very little overlap between the two broad
definitions, a finding which reflects very high levels of poverty and inequality in the country.
Lastly, both definitions of the middle class are shown to be robust to two common issues of
measurement, namely the inclusion of implied rental income, and the use of expenditure as
opposed to income as the basis for measuring class status.