South Africa - Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births)

The value for Mortality rate, infant (per 1,000 live births) in South Africa was 25.80 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 46 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 91.30 in 1974 and a minimum value of 25.80 in 2020.

Definition: Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.

Source: Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.

See also:

Year Value
1974 91.30
1975 87.00
1976 82.90
1977 79.00
1978 75.40
1979 72.00
1980 68.80
1981 65.70
1982 62.90
1983 60.30
1984 57.90
1985 55.60
1986 53.50
1987 51.60
1988 49.80
1989 48.20
1990 46.90
1991 45.90
1992 45.30
1993 45.20
1994 45.40
1995 45.80
1996 46.30
1997 46.60
1998 46.90
1999 47.50
2000 47.70
2001 47.80
2002 47.90
2003 48.40
2004 49.40
2005 49.40
2006 48.70
2007 46.60
2008 43.00
2009 38.40
2010 34.40
2011 32.10
2012 31.00
2013 30.10
2014 29.40
2015 28.60
2016 28.00
2017 27.60
2018 26.90
2019 26.30
2020 25.80

Development Relevance: Mortality rates for different age groups (infants, children, and adults) and overall mortality indicators (life expectancy at birth or survival to a given age) are important indicators of health status in a country. Because data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. And they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

Limitations and Exceptions: Complete vital registration systems are fairly uncommon in developing countries. Thus estimates must be obtained from sample surveys or derived by applying indirect estimation techniques to registration, census, or survey data. Survey data are subject to recall error, and surveys estimating infant/child deaths require large samples because households in which a birth has occurred during a given year cannot ordinarily be preselected for sampling. Indirect estimates rely on model life tables that may be inappropriate for the population concerned. Extrapolations based on outdated surveys may not be reliable for monitoring changes in health status or for comparative analytical work.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The main sources of mortality data are vital registration systems and direct or indirect estimates based on sample surveys or censuses. A "complete" vital registration system - covering at least 90 percent of vital events in the population - is the best source of age-specific mortality data. Estimates of neonatal, infant, and child mortality tend to vary by source and method for a given time and place. Years for available estimates also vary by country, making comparisons across countries and over time difficult. To make neonatal, infant, and child mortality estimates comparable and to ensure consistency across estimates by different agencies, the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), which comprises the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, the United Nations Population Division, and other universities and research institutes, developed and adopted a statistical method that uses all available information to reconcile differences. The method uses statistical models to obtain a best estimate trend line by fitting a country-specific regression model of mortality rates against their reference dates.

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

General Comments: Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development ac

Classification

Topic: Health Indicators

Sub-Topic: Mortality