{"id":414781,"date":"2020-07-09T12:18:15","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T10:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=414781"},"modified":"2020-07-09T12:18:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T10:18:15","slug":"this-is-the-average-life-expectancy-in-south-africa-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/414781\/this-is-the-average-life-expectancy-in-south-africa-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the average life expectancy in South Africa right now"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest mid-year population estimates produced by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) show that South Africa\u2019s population is estimated at 59.62 million people.<\/p>\n

Around 51.1% (approximately 30.5 million) of the population is female, while 5.43 million people are aged 60 and over.<\/p>\n

Population estimates are necessary to ensure that government and various other sectors, including health, education and business, plan effectively for South Africa.<\/p>\n

The mid-year estimates provide an indication of the distribution of the population by sex, age, population group, and province.<\/p>\n

The provincial estimates show that Gauteng has the largest share of the overall population, followed by KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape.<\/p>\n

However, the report noted that inter-provincial, as well as international migration patterns, significantly influence the provincial population numbers and structures in South Africa.<\/p>\n

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Life expectancy\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of mid-2020, Stats SA said that life expectancy at birth improved to 62.5 years for males and 68.5 years for females with these figures steadily increasing over the last decade.<\/p>\n

However, the stats body warned that these gains can be lost if, over time, the deaths due to Covid-19 are not curbed with effective treatment protocols and a vaccine.<\/p>\n

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“In South Africa, population estimates indicate that the proportion of elderly persons (60 years and older) has grown from 7.6% in 2002 to 9.1% in 2020.<\/p>\n

“In recent years, South Africa has moved from a country suffering mostly mortalities from communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV\/AIDS \u2013 which are often concentrated at younger ages \u2013 to scenarios where most causes of death are attributable to non-communicable diseases, manifesting at late ages, such as strokes or heart disease,” it said.<\/p>\n

The highest proportions of elderly persons aged 60 years and above are found in Eastern Cape (11.4%), Western Cape (10.3%) and Northern Cape (10%).<\/p>\n

“Developed countries that have, on average, an older population, experienced significantly higher numbers of Covid-related deaths among their elderly.<\/p>\n

“However, developed countries also have better functioning health systems. Although the health burden may be greater in developed countries due to their age profile, they have a greater ability to meet it.<\/p>\n

“South Africa, recognising its vulnerabilities, immediately responded with a lockdown to curb the spread and flatten the curve to provide health care systems the opportunity to prepare themselves to deal with the pandemic,” StatsSA said.<\/p>\n

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Read: Joburg and Cape Town hike tariffs as consumers buckle under coronavirus pressure<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest mid-year population estimates produced by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) show that South Africa\u2019s population is estimated at 59.62\u00a0 million people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":356365,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26,1809],"class_list":["post-414781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-headline","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414781"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414781\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":414797,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414781\/revisions\/414797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}