Main source of income for women-headed households comes from rent, remittances — SIGI

AMMAN — Women head 308,739 families in Jordan out of 2.190 million households in the Kingdom, amounting for 14.1 per cent, Sisterhood is Global Institute (SIGI) said on Saturday citing 2019 figures of the Department of Statistics (DoS).

The average annual income for Jordanian households in 2019 stood at JD11,242, of which JD4,490 from employment (40 per cent), JD980.3 from self-employment (8.7 per cent), JD1,861.5 from rent (16.5 per cent) JD94.2 from intellectual property and JD3,813.3 from remittances (34 per cent), according to a SIGI statement.

The source of income for families headed by women mainly came through rent and remittances with up to 69 per cent of the average annual income. In parallel, women’s income from employment made up 30.6 per cent compared with 36.1 per cent for men.

In this regard, SIGI said that such figures cast fears of the growing unemployment rates in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily among women who need to be economically empowered to cover the costs of additional burdens of their families they head.

On the other hand, the average annual expenditure of Jordanian families is higher than their income by JD994, standing at JD12,236, including JD3,996 on food groups, SIGI added.

The institute noted that the annual expenditure of families on hygiene items does not exceed JD153 and JD497 for health, while spending on the housing, water, electricity and gas amounts to JD2,892, which is some 24 per cent of the total expenditure.