Half of the 5.58 million people living with HIV in South Africa are women of child-bearing age, the SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Friday.

Of the 11 percent of the population infected, five million (89 percent) were adults aged 20 to 64, and 2.93 million (53 percent) were women of child-bearing age between the ages of 15 and 49, according to the SAIRR's latest SA Survey, using data from the Actuarial Society of SA.

Youth aged 15 to 24 years accounted for 731,000 (13 percent) and children 14 years and under accounted for 454,000 (eight percent).

The survey also found that the majority of HIV infected people lived in KwaZulu-Natal (15 percent), followed by the Free State, Mpumalanga, and the North West, with 13 percent each.

The lowest number, five percent of the infected, lived in the Western Cape.