Assault the leading non-natural cause of death in 2020 – Stats SA

KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) had the highest percentage of deaths due to external causes of death and injuries in 2020, a Stats SA report revealed on Tuesday.

Stats SA released a report on the mortality and causes of death information from the South African civil
registration system.

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This is based on all death notification forms from Department of Home Affairs (DHA) for deaths that occurred in 2020.

According to Stats SA, KZN recorded the highest number of deaths due to external causes, which includes accidents, violence including environmental events, poisoning and other adverse effects.

About 11.2% of the deaths recorded in the province in 2020 were due to external causes, with the Western Cape following at 10.5% and Gauteng with 9.8%.

Causes of death

South Africa recorded a total of 489 744 deaths in 2020, with more than half of the death notifications (51.6%) having one cause recorded, followed by 25.1% of death notification forms which had two causes of death recorded and 20.6% which had three causes recorded.

Overall, the leading cause of death in South Africa in 2020 was Covid-19 at 6.7%, revealed Stats SA. Ranking second and third were diabetes mellitus (6.6%) and cerebrovascular diseases (5.5%).

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The most notable movement among the underlying causes of death was seen in tuberculosis, which dropped from second place in 2019 to sixth place in 2020.

Of the 489 744 deaths recorded in 2020, 442 558 were natural, while 47 186 were non-natural deaths.

Non-natural causes of death comprise all deaths that were not attributable, or may not have been attributable to natural causes.

Deaths due to non-natural causes were higher for men than women, with the proportion significantly high for males aged 20-24 years. 

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Assault (12.0%), transport accidents (9.7%) and event of undetermined intent (5.5%) were the three leading non-natural causes of death in the country in 2020.

Stats SA on race

Black Africans recorded the highest number of deaths in 2020. This could, however, be attributed to the high population size of just over 48 million.

According to Stats SA, black Africans and coloureds are faced with the quadruple burden of disease. This as profiles for Indians/Asians and whites are dominated by non-communicable diseases.

The effect of HIV/Aids and tuberculosis has been greatest in black Africans, exacerbating mortality differentials, said Stats SA.

Marital status differences in mortality

About 34.6% (169 528) of the deceased were reported as never married at the time of death. Nearly a quarter (24.1%) of the deaths were for individuals that were married, said Stats SA.

Furthermore, 11.0% and 2.2% of all deaths occurred among widowed and divorced persons, respectively.

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However, the marital status of the deceased at the time of death was missing in 28.1% of all registered deaths.

Stats SA urged caution in this category as 137 544 of the deceased could not be determined in terms of marital status.

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