South Africa's first Living Conditions Survey (LCS) was conducted by Statistics South Africa between September 2008 and August 2009. The main aim of this survey is to provide data that will contribute to better understanding of living conditions and poverty in South Africa for monitoring levels of poverty over time. Data was collected from 25 075 households across the country over a period of 12 months. The survey used a combination of the diary and recall methods. Households were required to complete their daily acquisitions in diaries provided by Stats SA for a period of a month and to answer a variety of questions from the household questionnaire administered by a Stats SA official on a variety of topics. These include household expenditure, subjective poverty, and income and anthropometry.