The logic is clear from a scan of the variables. Quality of life includes both objective factors – access to services, connectivity, food security, jobs, services and so on – as well as deeply subjective matters, ranging from alienation and anomie to racial and communal trust and faith in the institutional machinery of South Africa. Many people may hold extreme views on one or two issues close to their hearts, but measured across multiple variables, their extremes are placed and understood in the context of views on multiple issues and areas of life.

The chart makes clear that 'work' (both unemployment and poor quality jobs), ‘pscho-social’ issues and 'crime-related' issues are the key dimensions pulling down the quality of life in the GCR.