IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

The report provides information on recorded live births registrations (for live births registered in the year of birth) and late registrations (for live births registered later than the year of birth) and occurrences. It was found that in 2004:

• There was a decrease in the annual number of registered live births in South Africa in 2004, as compared to 2003 (1 475 809 and 1 677 415 respectively). Although there was an increase in registrations of current births for 2004 (728 283) than in 2003 (621 887) this decrease in total registrations could be attributed to late registrations. Nevertheless, from 1994 there has been a steady increase in the number of registrations of current births. This could be attributed to the nationwide campaign geared towards improving birth registrations.
• Occurrence-based reporting of live births. The population register provides the number of live births that have been updated for lateness in reporting. The number of live births according to sex and citizenship of the child from 1991 to 2004, as reflected in the population register on 02 April 2005.  Overall, there were more male than female births in all the years except for the year 1992 and 1993, where the number of female births was slightly higher than that of male births.