Insights about commuters in Swaziland

97.4% of the population (10+), i.e. 776,000, report to have traveled as a vehicle driver, passenger or as a pedestrian during the week and 96.7% reported traveling during weekends. A majority of commuters spend less than 30 minutes on the road during the week and the highest travelers during weekends spend 30 minutes to an hour.

Contrary to the 97.4% of the commuters reported to have traveled by any means during the week, only 84 % of the commuters reported to have traveled in a vehicle either as a driver or passenger during the week and slightly higher at 85.6% during weekends.

Respondents were asked to estimate the amount of time they spend traveling in a car, van, truck, or bus either as a driver or a passenger. Most women and men spend less than an hour on the road during the week and 30 minutes to an hour during weekends. Significantly men and women spend the same amount of time on the road as drivers or passengers during weekdays and weekends.

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Profiling commuters in Swaziland

There are generally more light travelers. This group is the least homogeneous when comparing with the other two commuter groups; average and heavy travelers.

There are more commuters falling in to the light travelers’ category across all ages, followed by average travelers. The highest travelers are likely to be within ages 15 – 44 years. Within the heavy travelers’ category the older ages are most likely to have a largest representation than the other age groups.

Light travelers

71% of all weekly commuters fall into the light travelers’ category; this group spend up to 2 hours on the road weekly. 85% of men are within this group and 89.7% women. All age groups are represented almost equally in this category.

Average travelers

19% of the population are average travelers spending between 2 – 4 hours on the road each week. 22.1% of men and 24.7% of women. Although all age groups are represented, the slightly older group is likely to fall within this commuter category.

Heavy travelers

10% are heavy travelers spending 4 – 6 hours on the road each week. These are most likely to be men (54.2%) than women (45.8%).

Commuters and media exposure

Commuter groups are equally exposed to media in the country. A difference occurs only when analyzing the exposure in terms of time (length of exposure) especially for TV, radio and newspapers.

Newspaper readership

Outdoor advertising is more likely to reach 24.7% of the population not reached by newspapers. 25.7% of the light travelers do not read a newspaper. The same applies to 21.5% of average travelers and 16.5% of heavy travelers. Commuter groups do not affect readership but affect time spent reading, i.e. those commuters who travel long distances are more likely to take less time reading a newspaper that the other groups.

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Radio listening

Only 13.8% of people reached by outdoor advertising media are not reached by radio. Average and heavy travelers are more likely to be the highest away-from-home radio listeners. For the morning drive and midday day parts, average travelers are likely to be the highest away-from-home listeners.

For the afternoon and evening day part heavy travelers are most likely to be the ones listening to radio away-from-home.

Television viewing

23.1% of the people reached by outdoor are not reached by television

Outdoor advertising