More than a million babies were born in SA last year
Most of these births were from women aged 20-29 years
THE total number of registered births in South Africa continues to drop.
A total of 1 161 159 live births were registered at the Department of Home Affairs in 2014. This represents a decline of 0,5% as compared to 1 166 544 births that were registered in 2013.
This is according to the latest recorded live births, 2014 statistical report released by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday.
Overall, there were slightly more male (587 592) than female (573 567) births in 2014. Most of these births were from women aged 20-29 years and occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
No comparable or reliable information on fathers could be provided due to a high proportion of births registered (more than 60%) without details of fathers. Most births occurred during the months of March, January and September.
Information on the number of live births is crucial for the measurement of changes in population size and composition as every country needs to know its characteristics at every administrative level, from national to the lowest geographic level. Unregistered children become invisible when important evidence-based public health policies as well as other social development initiatives are made.
The Department of Home Affairs has made concerted efforts to ensure that registration of births is made as easy as possible. The potential to improve birth registration in South Africa exists as health facilities with maternity units now provide registration services and the social grant system’s birth registration prerequisite complements the birth registration network.
The most popular names for girls born and registered in 2014 were Iminathi, Minenhle and Rethabile, while the most popular names among baby boys were Junior, Bandile and Kungawo. Most babies were born to the surnames Dlamini, Ntuli and Ngubane.
The full reports are available on the Statistics South Africa website: www.statssa.gov.za
