This statistical release presents information on recorded live births in South Africa, based on information received from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). It focuses on current birth registrations and occurrences of live births for 2024 recorded for a period of 14 months (from January 2024 to February 2025). Furthermore, it covers information on late birth registrations that occurred in 2023 and earlier years, but were registered between January 2024 and February 2025.

The results show that a total of 863 858 births were registered in South Africa in 2024. Of these, 787 933 (91,2%) were births that occurred and were registered in 2024 (current birth registrations), while 75 925 (8,8%) were births that occurred in the previous years and registered in 2024. There were 396 845 male and 391 088 female births that took place in 2024 and registered the same year.

In 2024, about 83,2% of births were registered within 30 days of occurrence, compared to 80,7% in 2023, indicating an increase of 2,5%. A total of 98 351 births occurred to mothers aged 19 years and younger, of these, 2 103 were of mothers between the ages of 10 and 14 years at the time of giving birth. Provincially, the highest number of births in this age group were in KwaZulu-Natal (438) followed by Eastern Cape (349). Women between the ages 20 and 34 years accounted for almost 70% of all births in 2024 (68,4%).

The highest percentage of birth occurrences were observed in the two most populous provinces, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, at 22,6% and 21,0%, respectively. When population size is taken into account, the highest proportion of birth occurrences relative to population were recorded in Limpopo and Northern Cape both at 1,6% and the lowest in the North West, Western Cape and Gauteng (1,1%). Most births occurred in March, May and April (8,9%) and the least number of births occurred in November at 7,3%.

In 2024, the most popular first name amongst baby girls was Onalerona, while amongst boys Lethabo was dominant. Junior and Precious were common second names for boys and girls respectively. Dlamini followed by Ndlovu and Nkosi were still the top three most common surnames amongst babies born and registered in 2024, this was the case in previous years.