The highest proportion of deaths occurred among women aged 70–74, while for men, it was among those aged 60–64.
According to data from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), the country recorded 486 041 deaths in 2022.
On Thursday, Stats SA released its data on mortality and causes of death in the country, based on deaths collected through the South African civil registration system, which is maintained by the Department of Home Affairs.
The information on causes of death is captured as it was recorded on death notification forms completed by medical practitioners and other certifying officials.
In 2022, mortality rates showed a reversal of the pattern observed in 2020 and 2021 (620 394 deaths), which were dominated by Covid-19 deaths.
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Mortality declined by approximately 22%, which was almost at the 2019 level, compared to 2020 and 2021.
Deaths by age groups and sex
Overall, there were more male deaths (53.5%) than female deaths (46.6 %) in 2022 from infancy until age 70. After this age group, women recorded more deaths than men.
The highest proportion of deaths was among those aged 70 to 74 years for women, while more men died aged 60 to 64 years old.
The lowest proportions were observed among those aged five to nine and 10–14 years for both sexes.
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Overall, men and women aged 65 to 69 years old recorded the highest deaths (41 760), followed by 60 to 64-year-olds (40 774) and 70 to 74-year-olds (40 340).
Individuals aged 90 and above (22 083) outlived those aged 30 to 34 (26 392), 35 to 39 (29 543), 40 to 44 (28 307), and 45 to 49 (28 548).
Causes of death
Almost 60% of deaths were due to non-communicable diseases in 2022, while communicable diseases accounted for 28% of deaths.
Diabetes mellitus was the number one leading cause of death for both sexes, responsible for 5.2% and 8.6% of the deaths for men and women, respectively.
It was the leading cause among those aged 45–64 years, responsible for 8.1% deaths, a pattern observed in previous years.
Hypertensive diseases (8.2%) were the second underlying cause of death for women. Hypertensive diseases were also the leading cause of death for those aged 65 and older.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease moved back to the fourth rank, last occupied in 2019, with 4.3% of the deaths attributed to this cause. HIV was the leading cause of death for adults aged 15 to 44 years.
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Influenza and pneumonia were the only underlying causes of death common among the age groups, while other forms of heart diseases were part of the ten underlying causes of death in all age groups, except for infants.
Men aged 15–29 continue to bear the brunt of deaths due to non-natural causes of death, with almost 60% of male deaths resulting from non-natural causes compared to only 24% of females in the same age group.
Provincial breakdown
The provinces with the highest proportion of deaths were Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, while the Northern Cape had the lowest percentage of deaths.
Here is the provincial breakdown by numbers:
- Gauteng – 106 293
- KwaZulu-Natal – 90 553
- Eastern Cape – 77 160
- Western Cape – 55 742
- Limpopo – 45 458
- North West – 32 553
- Mpumalanga – 31 850
- Free State – 30 499
- Northern Cape – 15 121
KwaZulu-Natal (15.7%) had the highest proportion of deaths due to non-natural causes, followed closely by Gauteng (14.4%). Within non-natural causes, the Northern Cape had the highest proportion of deaths due to assault (15.4%) and transport accidents (247%).
Stats SA on race and marital status
Black Africans had the highest percentage of deaths, comprising 68.9% (335 049) of the total deaths, followed by the white population group, 9.5% (46 204) and then the coloured population group, 7.6% (37 137).
The Indian/Asian population group 2.3% (10 938) accounted for the least percentage of registered deaths.
“The proportions observed are somewhat indicative of the variations in population size by population group,” said Stats SA.
The majority of the deaths, 37.8% (183 796) occurred among the people who had never been married. This was followed by those who were married, 20.9% (101 485), and the widowed, 10.3% (49 983).
“It is worth noting that the variations in the percentage of deaths by marital status may be affected by differences in population sizes across the marital status categories,” said Stats SA.
There were 139 894 death notification forms that had missing information on the marital status of the deceased.
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