Recorded Live Births 1998-2024
South Africa, 1998 - 2024
Get MicrodataIdentification
ZAF_1998-2024_RLB_v01_M
Recorded Live Births 1998-2024
RLB 1998-2024
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| South Africa | ZAF |
Recorded Live Births
Administrative records data [adm]
Individuals
Version
Version 01: Edited, anonymised data for public distribution
2026-01
Version 1 of this dataset was downloaded from Statistics SA's Isibalo site on December 30, 2025
Scope
Birth registration in South Africa is governed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992, as amended) and administered by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). Upon registration, the DHA issues a birth certificate and updates the national population register. Once the data has been captured, it is transferred to the mainframe, where it is downloaded and the birth transactions are extracted for processing by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).
| Topic |
|---|
| Live births |
Coverage
This dataset has national coverage.
The distribution of births by DCs, metros and provinces are approximate figure as there was no perfect match of magisterial districts for all DCs, metros and provinces, since some magisterial districts are situated in more than one DC, metro or province. Such magisterial districts were allocated to the district council where the majority of the land area falls.
The lowest level of geographic aggregation covered by the data is magisterial district using the 2016 municipal demarcations.
The target population is all births recorded on the Birth Register for the years 1998 to 2024. All births that occurred in South Africa, but where the parents were non-South African citizens or not permanent residents, have been excluded.
Producers and sponsors
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Statistics South Africa | Government of South Africa |
| Name | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Home Affairs | Government of South Africa | Data capturing. |
Study authorization
1992
Registration of births in South Africa is governed by the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1992 (Act No. 51 of 1992), which is implemented by the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA).
Survey instrument
The DHA uses two forms to record live births: Form DHA-24, Notice of Birth, to register births for persons aged 30 days and below; and Form DHA-24/LRB is used to register births for persons aged 31 days and older (along with other forms).
Data collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 2024 |
| Start date | End date |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 2024 |
- Other [other]
| Name | Affiliation | Abbreviation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Home Affairs | Government of South Africa | DHA | Data capturing |
| Statistics South Africa | Government of South Africa | StatsSA | Dataset preparation |
Access policy
DataFirst data repository
Statistics South Africa's Isibalo site
Depositor information
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statistics South Africa | StatsSA | Government of South Africa | https://www.statssa.gov.za/ |
Distributor information
| Organization name | Affiliation | URL |
|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/ |
Data Access
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | http://support.data1st.org/ | support@data1st.org |
Use is under a Creative Commons BY attribution only license
Statistics South Africa. Recorded Live Births 1998-2024 [dataset]. Version 1. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa [producer], 2025. Cape Town: DataFirst [distributor], 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25828/5JTQ-2R31
The data re-user agrees to send DataFirst a link to research publications that are based on the data.
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst Helpdesk | University of Cape Town | support@data1st.org | https://www.support@data1st.org |
Metadata production
DDI_ZAF_1998-2024_RLB_v01_M
| Name | Abbreviation | Affiliation | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| DataFirst | University of Cape Town | Metadata producer | |
| Development Data Group | DECDG | The World Bank | Metadata adapted for World Bank Microdata Library |
Metadata version
Identical to a metadata (zaf-statssa-rlb-1998-2024-v1) published on DataFirst microdata repository (https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog). Some of the metadata fields have been edited.