Actors associated with change in Uganda’s wealth quintile using (UDHS 2011&2016).

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the factors that affect Uganda’s wealth quintile and employed data from the Uganda Demographic and Health Surveys (UDHS – 2011 & 2016) that composed household wealth asset data, the household file. In order to establish the relationship between sex of the household head, highest level of education of the household head, type of place of residence and household wealth quintile in Uganda. The wealth index was used as a composite measure of a household's cumulative living standard. Independent variables used under this study include the following; type of place of residence, sex of them household head and highest level of education of the household head and the dependent variable being the household wealth quintile. A sample of 19,588 households from 2016 survey and a sample of 9,033 from the 2011 survey were used in this analyses. The probability of being within all the quintiles among male-headed households significantly higher than that female-headed households (calculated chi-square = 33.0591, P.value = 0.00) The type of place of residence had a significant association with the wealth quintile (P.value = 0.000). Households that lived in urban areas were richer (66.55%) compared to those in rural areas. The highest level of education had a significant relationship with the wealth quintile (F-statistic = 39.71, P.value = 0.000). However, households that attained at most the primary level of education had a significantly higher wealth than those without any education. Households that that didn’t know their level of education level of education had a significantly lower wealth than those with the secondary level of education. The study recommends the government to encourage people to save, household heads to persist in education to gain higher levels of education. Households should consider undertaking self-generating expenditures in acquiring of certain assets. In addition, households should undertake opportunity ventures in urban areas most especially those that reside in the rural areas which can uplift their wealth statuses.