Key findings: P0309.3 – Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 2023: Findings from death notifications

This report provides information on levels, trends and patterns in mortality and cause of death by socio-demographic and geographic characteristics. The mortality and cause of death indicators presented in this report are critical for measuring the health status of the South African population. The main focus of this report is on 2023 death occurrences, however, information on deaths that occurred during the period 2002 to 2022 is included to show trends.

The total number of deaths recorded for 2023 was 476 751. The proportion of male to female deaths was almost the same from infancy until age group 15–19 after which there were more male deaths that female deaths. The highest number of deaths amongst females were aged 70-74 (9,2%) and for males it was those aged 65-69 at 8,9%. The lowest number was observed among those aged 5–9 for both sexes 5–9 at 0,6% for males and 0,5% for females.

Geographic distribution of deaths by province of death occurrence shows that the highest proportion of deaths (21,2%) occurred in Gauteng province, followed by KwaZulu-Natal (18,3%) and then Eastern Cape (16,4%). The lowest proportion of deaths occurred in Northern Cape (3,2%). The highest proportion of deaths occurred hospitals (38,7%) followed by deaths occurring at home (24,4%).

The top three causes of death in 2023 were due to non-communicable diseases, with diabetes accounting for 5,8% deaths, followed by cerebrovascular diseases and hypertensive diseases at 5,4% and 5,2% respectively. COVID-19 remained out of the ten leading causes just as in 2022. Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death amongst males accounting for 5,1 male deaths while diabetes mellitus was the leading cause of death amongst females responsible for 7,5% deaths.

Looking at leading causes of deaths by age groups, influenza and pneumonia were in the top ten leading causes of death for all age groups except for age group 45–64. This is the first time influenza and pneumonia were not common for all broad age groups in recent years. Tuberculosis and other forms of heart diseases were part of the ten underlying causes of death in all age groups, except for infants, while intestinal infectious diseases were among the ten leading underlying causes of death for children, accounting for 5,3% of infant deaths and 5,0% of deaths to children aged 1–14 years. The leading underlying cause of death for infants (age 0) was respiratory and cardiovascular disorders specific to the perinatal period, responsible for 15,9% of deaths. Influenza and pneumonia were the leading underlying cause of death for age group 1–14 years, accounting for 6,0% of deaths while human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and tuberculosis was the leading underlying cause of death among those aged 15–44 accounting for 8,3% deaths. For age group 45–64 years, diabetes mellitus was the leading cause of death responsible for 7,0% deaths and finally hypertensive diseases were the leading cause of death for those aged 65 years and older at 9,2%. 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, Northern Cape had the highest proportion of deaths due to assault (15,4%) and transport accidents (24,7%).