Men should get partners to stay alive‚ stats show

Data has revealed that single people are more likely to end up dead compared to their married‚ widowed or divorced counterparts.

According to Statistics SA's Mortality and Causes of Death released in Pretoria on Tuesday‚ 214‚864 (46‚7%) out of 460‚236 total deaths recorded in 2015 were those of single people compared to 112‚522 (24‚4%) married‚ 48‚984 (10‚6%) widowed and 9‚325 (2‚0) divorced.

Statistician-General Pali Lehohla said the risk of death was even more amongst single men than it was for single women.

“What is clear is that...men who are not married are more exposed to death than those that are married‚” he said.

Lehohla said therefore data shows that as a man one needs a partner to save one's life.

He said “the death rate of single men is very high because you go out‚ go drink and come back and there is no one to ask you questions...then you get into accidents and all those kind of things.”

The report notes that this pattern of death according to marital status observed in 2015 was consistent with that observed in their previous year‚ 2014.

It is worth noting though that the marital status of 74‚551 (16‚2%) people who died‚ out of the total number of people who died in 2015‚ was unknown or unspecified.

Data also indicates interesting trends in deaths by gender and age‚ with more male than female deaths from age zero up to age group 15-19 years for all the years from 2011-2015.

From age group 20-24 years to age group 25-29 years‚ there were more female deaths than male deaths in 2011.

But for the period 2012 to 2014‚ the figure shows that male deaths continued to exceed female deaths up to age group 65-69.

Thereafter‚ female deaths outnumbered male deaths from age group 65-69 years to the oldest age group‚ with the exception of 2015 where male deaths were higher than female deaths in age group 70-74.

In 2015‚ male deaths were in excess from age zero year to age group 70-74 years. Overall‚ female deaths were consistently more than male deaths from age group 70-74 years to 90 years and older for the years between 2011 and 2014.

In 2015‚ female deaths exceeded male deaths for ages 75 years and above.

“Over the five years (2011-2015)‚ there has been a gradual increase in sex ratios from age group 15-19 to 40-44 years. This indicates improvements in female mortality in these age groups‚” the report noted.

- TMG Digital/TimesLIVE