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

The value for Mortality rate, infant, female (per 1,000 live births) in South Africa was 23.60 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 46 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 84.70 in 1974 and a minimum value of 23.60 in 2020.

Definition: Infant mortality rate, female is the number of female infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 female 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 84.70
1975 80.60
1976 76.60
1977 73.00
1978 69.50
1979 66.20
1980 63.20
1981 60.30
1982 57.60
1983 55.10
1984 52.80
1985 50.70
1986 48.80
1987 47.00
1988 45.40
1989 43.90
1990 42.70
1991 41.80
1992 41.40
1993 41.30
1994 41.50
1995 42.00
1996 42.60
1997 43.00
1998 43.40
1999 44.00
2000 44.20
2001 44.40
2002 44.60
2003 45.10
2004 46.10
2005 46.10
2006 45.50
2007 43.50
2008 40.10
2009 35.70
2010 31.90
2011 29.70
2012 28.70
2013 27.80
2014 27.20
2015 26.40
2016 25.80
2017 25.40
2018 24.70
2019 24.20
2020 23.60

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 Extrapolations based on outdated surveys may not be reliable for monitoring changes in health status or for comparative analytical work.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