This study sets out to establish and explain the empirical link between HIV/AIDS and poverty using data collected by the 1998 South African Demographic and Health Survey (SADHS). Analysis is restricted to women of reproductive age (15-49 years). The results indicate an increased risk of HIV infection among the poor; due to poverty-related characteristics of low education and low knowledge of the means of avoiding HIV infection; as opposed to the non-poor. Moreover; the poor and the less educated were found to be more likely not to use condoms than the non-poor. The results do not; however; provide the reasons for these relations and as such further research is required. One possible explanation was financial dependence on their partners; as it was found that women who received money from their partners; as well as those who came from households where hunger was a common phenomenon; were more likely not to use condoms because their partners disliked condoms; than those who did not receive money from their partners.The results also hinted at the intricacy of the poverty- HIV/AIDS relationship; so that it was not only low socio-economic status that increased susceptibility to HIV infection but also high socio-economic status