A considerable burden of disease in South Africa is from non-communicable diseases, and concern remains with the proportion of deaths associated with diabetes mellitus, particularly in females.
Statistician-general Risenga Maluleke released the 2016 Mortality and Causes of Death in South Africa report last week. The report provides an overview of what South Africans die from, and highlights variations by age, sex and geographic location.
There were 456,612 deaths recorded in 2016, 52.7 percent of whom were females, with 47.3 percent being male. Most deaths occurred in Gauteng, followed by KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Majority of deaths in SA occurred in most populous provinces. 21% of deaths occurred in #Gauteng, 19% in KwaZulu-Natal & 14% in the #EasternCape #StatsSA https://t.co/BdXqxk53hC pic.twitter.com/Bzld8eGP9W
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) March 27, 2018
88.8 percent deaths that took place in 2016 were due to natural causes, and 11.2 percent were attributed to non-natural causes.
57,4% of #deaths in 2016 were due to non-communicable diseases, 31,3% due to communicable & 11,2% due to injuries #StatsSA https://t.co/BdXqxk53hC pic.twitter.com/5s7AeevzUa
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) March 27, 2018
The top five natural causes
1. Tubercolosis
Tuberculosis remains the leading underlying cause of #death in South Africa followed by Diabetes mellitus #StatsSA https://t.co/BdXqxk53hC pic.twitter.com/ZDYypIuwFm
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) March 27, 2018
2. Diabetes
3. Various forms of heart disease e.g. pericarditis‚ endocarditis‚ pulmonary valve disorders‚ cardiac arrest‚ atrial fibrillation
4. Cerebrovascular diseases
5. HIV
The top five unnatural causes
1. Other external causes of accidental injury
2. Assault
Assault accounted for 14,8% of non-natural #deaths, transport accidents for 12,5%. Both transport accidents & assault deaths peaked in December #StatsSA https://t.co/BdXqxk53hC pic.twitter.com/sVgNjv0xZB
— Stats SA (@StatsSA) March 27, 2018
3. Transport accidents
4. Event of undermined intent
5. Complications of medical and surgical care
Notably, in 2016 the total number of deaths is a 3.5 percent decline on the 473,266 occurrences in 2015.
