Namibia in Numbers: Household expenditure on food, beverages and tobacco by region

The Namibia Statistics Agency is conducting the 2025/26 Namibia Household Income and Expenditure Survey (NHIES), which will provide fresh insights into household consumption and expenditure patterns.

The previous NHIES, conducted in 2015/16, found that 36.3% of total household expenditure went to food, beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic) and tobacco.

There is a strong link between the level of urbanisation in a region and the share of consumption allocated to these goods.

In less urbanised regions, where incomes are lower and food is a necessity, the relative share of expenditure on food is significantly higher.

At these income levels, consumption tends to be dominated by staple goods such as maize and bread.

According to the current Namibia Consumer Price Index Bulletin (NCPI) basket, households in the northern regions (zone one) spend over four times as much of their total expenditure on food as households in the Khomas region (zone two).

Bread expenditure alone is 50% higher in the north compared to the Khomas region.

Alcoholic beverages show a similar trend: beer is the second heaviest item in the NCPI basket after rent, making up 7% of the total, with the highest weight in northern regions.

Expenditure on food, beverages and tobacco is the only expenditure category where urbanisation and basket weight are negatively correlated.

By contrast, in the 2015/16 NHIES, all other categories – housing and utilities, clothing and footwear, health, education, furnishings and equipment, transport and communications, and ‘other’ – showed positive correlation with urbanisation.

Households in more urbanised regions spend proportionally more on housing and utilities, and also allocate a larger share of expenditure to education and health.

Relative spending on health is closely tied to income – in 2015/16, the top 10% of income earners allocated 2.3% of their budgets to health, compared to less than 0.7% for each decile below the 60% income group.

The relationship between income and education expenditure is more mixed.

The top 10% of earners allocated 2.5% to education, while the bottom 10% spent slightly more at 2.7%.

The Khomas region, however, is a clear outlier here, with households in the region spending 4.1% of their budgets on education (driven by a greater concentration of private schools and universities compared to the rest of the country).

– Tannan Groenewald is the head of data and analytics at Cirrus Capital.

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