South Africa recorded the fewest live births in almost twenty years in 2024, continuing a steady decline that began in 2021.

Stats SA’s latest Recorded Live Births report released last week, which contains annual birth data going back to 2005, shows the total number of babies born in 2024 was just 798 581, a sharp drop from 872 792 the year before and over 1 million in 2020.

This marks the lowest annual figure since the early 2000s, showing that South Africa’s population growth is slowing as families have fewer children.

Demographers point to several possible causes such as rising living costs, urbanisation, delayed marriage and childbearing, and a growing number of women focusing on education and careers before starting families. The data show the median age of mothers rose to 28.3 years in 2024, compared with 26.6 years in 2005, confirming that South Africans are having children later in life.

While fewer babies are being born, the registration system itself is improving. Stats SA reports that 83% of births were registered within 30 days, up from 81% in 2023 and just 71% during the pandemic year of 2020. Late registrations now account for less than 9% of all cases, compared with more than 40% two decades ago.

The provinces with the most births remain Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, which together account for nearly half of all registrations.