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

The value for Mortality rate, infant, male (per 1,000 live births) in South Africa was 27.80 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 46 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 97.60 in 1974 and a minimum value of 27.80 in 2020.

Definition: Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male 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 97.60
1975 93.10
1976 88.90
1977 85.00
1978 81.20
1979 77.50
1980 74.10
1981 71.00
1982 68.00
1983 65.20
1984 62.70
1985 60.30
1986 58.10
1987 55.90
1988 54.00
1989 52.30
1990 50.90
1991 49.80
1992 49.10
1993 48.90
1994 49.10
1995 49.40
1996 49.90
1997 50.10
1998 50.30
1999 50.80
2000 50.90
2001 51.10
2002 51.10
2003 51.50
2004 52.50
2005 52.50
2006 51.80
2007 49.60
2008 45.80
2009 41.00
2010 36.80
2011 34.40
2012 33.20
2013 32.30
2014 31.60
2015 30.70
2016 30.10
2017 29.70
2018 29.00
2019 28.40
2020 27.80

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 Extrapolations based on outdated surveys may not be reliable for monitoring changes in health status or for comparative analytical work.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