Methodology

StateOfZar tracks what everyday things cost in South Africa over time. There are no opinions here: every chart is built from dated prices, and every price cites where it came from.

Where the numbers come from

Historical prices come from published, dated sources such as Stats SA consumer price releases, the PMBEJD Household Affordability Index, AA fuel price tables and Eskom tariff schedules. Each product page lists its sources, and the full table of data points shows the source of every single price.

Official data and retailer snapshots

Recent prices can also come from snapshots of retailer websites. When both exist for the same month, the official figure is kept and the snapshot is discarded. Points are labelled official or scraper wherever you can inspect them.

How charts stay honest

• Lines never overshoot between real data points.
• Hovering or scrubbing a chart only ever shows real data points, never interpolated values.
• Where data is sparse, every point is drawn as a dot.
• Where months are missing, that stretch of line is dashed.
• A time range is only offered when the data covers all of it.

Sample data

While the site is being built, some products use placeholder prices marked SAMPLE. A banner appears on every page while any placeholder data remains, and placeholder data is never exported as a shareable card.

Corrections

If a number is wrong, it is corrected in the data, the chart and the card, and the change is visible in the project history. Accuracy matters more than speed.