Cape Town - For the last five winters, South Africans have been busy making babies, a Statistics SA survey has shown.
Stats SA said most babies born in South Africa between 2017 and 2021 were born in March – this means conception was in the deep mid-winter months of June and July.
The survey, updated on July 31 this year, showed that in 2021, the second most common month of birth was May and January, a departure from the previous trend, where September was the second highest month.
The proportion of births during March and May were also much higher than the pattern seen in previous years, while September showed an uncharacteristic decline in proportion of birth occurrence.
At the same time, Stats SA data is clear that if you had a baby in the Western Cape during 2021, it was more likely than anywhere else in the country to be a boy than a girl.
The survey used a sex ratio method which showed that a ratio of 100 indicates an equal number of male births for every female birth, whereas a number less than 100 indicates relatively more female births. A number above 100 indicates more male births.
South Africa, as a country, had a sex ratio of 102 males per 100 females, which means more male births than female births were registered.
Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke said: “The Western Cape had the highest sex ratio at 103; North West and Limpopo had the lowest sex ratio at 100 male birth registrations per 100 female births.”
Maluleke said three out of nine provinces had a sex ratio of 102 male birth registrations per 100 female birth registrations. These were Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
He said there were significantly more babies born in 2021 than in 2020 and suggested that this “unusually large increase” of 14% may be related to South Africa’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
With regards to birth registrations, the survey showed the negative impact of Covid-19 and national lockdown regulations, such as the closure of Department of Home Affairs (DHA) offices, resulting in a 9.2% decline in registration within 30 days in 2020.
However, a slight increase of 4% was observed in 2021. This means that registration within 30 days increased from 71% in 2020 to 75%.
Late registrations of birth, after the lapse of 30 days but before end of the year, also decreased from 25% in 2020 to 20% in 2021.
Related to this, the survey said information about fathers remained the biggest challenge.
Maluleke said: “In 2021, no reliable information on fathers could be provided due to a high proportion of births registered, more than 60%, without details of fathers.”
However, this is set to change following a 2021 Constitutional Court ruling that unmarried fathers can now have their information registered in the birth certificates of their children at Home Affairs.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za