IMPROVING LIVES THROUGH DATA ECOSYSTEMS

In 2011, 26 466 deaths that took place in Cape Town were recorded, compared to 19 574 deaths that occurred in Tshwane. Both cities had a decrease in the number of deaths from those observed in 2010, with a higher decrease observed for Cape Town (5,6%) than for Tshwane (1,7%). Most deaths that occurred in Cape Town were in the ages 50 to 79 while those in Tshwane were mostly in ages 35 to 74. Overall, sex ratios at death for the two metros were above 100 for both 1997 and 2011, indicating more male deaths than female deaths in these two cities. Relatively, more male deaths occurred in Cape Town than Tshwane, particularly at ages 10 to 39.

As is the case at national level, most deaths in both metros were due to natural causes compared to non-natural causes. The percentage distribution of natural and non-natural causes of death over the periods 1997, 2007 and 2011 show higher but declining non-natural causes of death for Cape Town than for Tshwane. The highest percentage of deaths due to non-natural causes in Cape Town for 2011 occurred in the age group 20-24 at 58,3 percent, closely followed by age group 15-19 at 57,6%. For Tshwane, 35,3 percent of deaths occurring in the age group 20-24 was due to non-natural causes followed by 34,5 percent in age group 15-19.

Of the ten leading natural causes of death in Tshwane in 2011, six were due to non-communicable diseases while 4 were due to communicable diseases. Assault, followed by transport accidents contributed 9,9% and 1,9 percent to all non-natural causes of deaths in Cape Town in 2011. Although this figure is a decline from 11, 4 and 3,7% in 2007 for Cape Town it is still much higher than 0,4 and 2,6% for assault and transport accidents respectively observed in Tshwane in 2011. The leading cause of death in Tshwane was Tuberculosis.

Eight out of top ten causes of deaths in Cape Town were due to non-communicable diseases with only two communicable diseases: tuberculosis and Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] disease appearing among the top ten causes of death. The leading cause of death in Cape Town was diabetes mellitus.

Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death due to communicable diseases in the two metros, at 6, 6% in Cape Town and 8, 2 % in Tshwane. Although the City of Cape Town had a higher proportion of deaths due to HIV disease than Tshwane, this is likely attributable to better reporting of causes of death in Cape Town than Tshwane.

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