SA birth registration 2021

Statistics South Africa has raised concerns over the increasing number of teenage mothers in 2021.

A total of 45 257 births were from mothers aged 17 years and younger and of these, 42 were births from mothers between the ages of 11 and 12.

The data company released the number of registered births for 2021.

The statistical release also provided information on trends in births that occurred during the period 1994 to 2015, and whether these are registered within a 30-day period as required by law. The release draws on data collected by the Department of Home Affairs through the civil registration system.

A total of 1 million 87 thousand 526 births were registered in South Africa in 2021. Of these, 87,3% were births that occurred and were registered last year, , while 12,7% were births that occurred in the previous years but were registered in 2021.

Of the total 949 757 children born in 2021, there were 498 573 male and 491 056 female births.

StatsSA said the negative impact of COVID-19 and national lockdown regulations such as the closure of Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offices, resulted in a 9,2% decline in registration within 30 days in 2020, however, it added it has seen a slight increase of 4% in 2021, i.e. registration within 30 days increased from 71% in 2020 to 75%.

Late registrations of birth after the lapse of 30 days but before the end of the year, also decreased from 25% in 2020 to 20% in 2021

Now the Births and Deaths Registration Amendment Actstipulates that all births must be registered within 30 days from the date of occurrence.

Last year, 74,6 % of births that occurred complied with this amendment. However, KwaZulu-Natal province remains the only province which performs poorly in terms of early birth registrations with only 67,7% births registered within 30 days of occurrence.

Stats SA raised concerns about information pertaining to fathers

The data company said In 2021, no reliable information on fathers could be provided due to a high proportion of births registered (more than 60%) without the details of fathers.

Let’s hone in on the Western Cape, and 103 368 births were registered, last year. of these, 79 449 were within 30 days. 1 819 parents only registered their child within a space of a year or 14 years.

The sex ratio at birth is defined as the number of male births per 100 female births. South Africa had a sex ratio of 102 males per 100 females indicating that there were more male birth registrations than female birth registrations in 2021. Three out of nine provinces had a sex ratio of 102 male birth registrations per 100 female birth registrations. These were Northern Cape, KwaZuluNatal and Gauteng.

Western Cape had the highest sex ratio at 103, whereas North West and Limpopo had the lowest sex ratio at 100 male birth registrations per 100 female birth.

Now the pattern of birth occurrences by month of birth was largely similar between 2017 and 2021. The highest proportions of births occurred during the month of March for all the years.

This suggests that over the five years, a higher proportion of birth occurrences were likely to be conceived during June or July. In 2021 the second most common month of birth occurrence was May, and January, a departure from the previous trend, where September was the second highest month. The proportion of births occurrence during March and May are also much higher than the pattern seen in previous years, while September shows an uncharacteristic decline in proportion of birth occurrence.

In terms of Baby forenames and surnames in South Africa, and

As you know, A person’s forename and surname are fundamental human rights enshrined in the Births and Deaths Registration  

The act of giving a child a name continues throughout their upbringing and these names remains just as important. In a world full of words, language is used to identify, classify and connect. The naming of a newborn child plays a very important role in most cultures around the world. For instance, African baby names are given for reason, relevance and purpose. Similarly, South Africa is a country with a variety of cultures and religions, this has a profound influence on baby naming.

Now according to Stats SA, amongst males, the top three leading forenames were Lethabo, followed by Lubanzi and Melokuhle.

The leading forenames for females were Melokuhle in first place, followed by Omphile in second place and Iminathi in third place.

Melokuhle, Lethabo and Lethokuhle appeared on both males and females top ten list. Melokuhle ranked first amongst females while it ranked third amongst males.

In general, the popular baby forenames for males and females reflect positive hopes for the child, express beliefs and are inspired by positive connotations of both love and acceptance.

Now for both sexes Dlamini was the most common baby surname in 2021, closely followed by Nkosi and Ndlovu. These surnames has been the most common baby surnames in South Africa for the past 8 years.

It is noteworthy says the data company, that, nine of the surnames were from the Nguni clans namely isiZulu, isiXhosa, isiNdebele and siSwati. Mokoena which featured as the sixth most popular surname was the only non-Nguni surname.

 

For Bush Radio News, I’m Mitchum George