BackgroundStudies on the barriers migrant women face when trying to access healthcare services in South Africa have emphasized economic factors, fear of deportation, lack of documentation, language barriers, xenophobia, and discrimination in society and in healthcare institutions as factors explaining migrants’ reluctance to seek healthcare. Our study aims to visualize some of the outcome effects of these barriers by analyzing data on maternal death and comparing the local population and black African migrant women from the South African Development Countries (SADC) living in South Africa. The heightened maternal mortality of black migrant women in South Africa can be associated with the hidden costs of barriers migrants face, including xenophobic attitudes experienced at public healthcare institutions.MethodsOur analysis is based on data on reported causes of death (COD) from the South African Department of Home Affairs (DHA). Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) processed the data further and coded the cause of death (COD) according to the WHO classification of disease, ICD10. The dataset is available on the StatsSA website (http://nesstar.statssa.gov.za:8282/webview/) for research and statistical purposes. The entire dataset consists of over 10 million records and about 50 variables of registered deaths that occurred in the country between 1997 and 2018. For our analysis, we have used data from 2002 to 2015, the years for which information on citizenship is reliably included on the death certificate. Corresponding benchmark data, in which nationality is recorded, exists only for a 10% sample from the population and housing census of 2011. Mid-year population estimates (MYPE) also exist but are not disaggregated by nationality. For this reason, certain estimates of death proportions by nationality will be relative and will not correspond to crude death rates.ResultsThe total number of female deaths recorded from the years 2002 to 2015 in the country was 3740.761. Of these, 99.09% (n = 3,707,003) were deaths of South Africans and 0.91% (n = 33,758) were deaths of SADC women citizens. For maternal mortality, we considered the total number of deaths recorded for women between the ages of 15 and 49 years of age and were 1,530,495 deaths. Of these, deaths due to pregnancy-related causes contributed to approximately 1% of deaths. South African women contributed to 17,228 maternal deaths and SADC women to 467 maternal deaths during the period under study. The odds ratio for this comparison was 2.02. In other words, our findings show the odds of a black migrant woman from a SADC country dying of a maternal death were more than twice that of a South African woman. This result is statistically significant as this odds ratio, 2.02, falls within the 95% confidence interval (1.82–2.22).ConclusionThe study is the first to examine and compare maternal death among two groups of women, women from SADC countries and South Africa, based on Stats SA data available for the years 2002–2015. This analysis allows for a better understanding of the differential impact that social determinants of health have on mortality among black migrant women in South Africa and considers access to healthcare as a determinant of health. As we examined maternal death, we inferred that the heightened mortality among black migrant women in South Africa was associated with various determinants of health, such as xenophobic attitudes of healthcare workers toward foreigners during the study period. The negative attitudes of healthcare workers toward migrants have been reported in the literature and the media. Yet, until now, its long-term impact on the health of the foreign population has not been gaged. While a direct association between the heightened death of migrant populations and xenophobia cannot be established in this study, we hope to offer evidence that supports the need to focus on the heightened vulnerability of black migrant women in South Africa. As we argued here, the heightened maternal mortality among migrant women can be considered hidden barriers in which health inequality and the pervasive effects of xenophobia perpetuate the health disparity of SADC migrants in South Africa.

ObjectivesThis study investigates the association between cohort derived dementia and serologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, an underexplored phenomena in low-and middle-income countries. Examining this relationship in a rural South African community setting offers insights applicable to broader healthcare contexts.MethodsData were collected from Black South Africans in the Mpumalanga province who participated in the Health and Aging in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa. Cohort derived dementia was developed using a predictive model for consensus-based dementia diagnosis. Multinomial logistic regression models estimated the association between predicted dementia probability in 2018 and SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in 2021, controlling for demographics, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities.ResultsFifty-two percent of the tested participants had serologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. In the fully adjusted model, cohort derived dementia was significantly associated with over twice the risk of serological diagnosis of COVID-19 (RRR = 2.12, p = 0.045).ConclusionComplying with COVID-19 prevention recommendations may be difficult for individuals with impaired cognitive functioning due to their symptoms. Results can inform community-based public health initiatives to reduce COVID-19 transmission among South Africa’s rapidly aging population.

In 2025, nearly 11.7 percent of the world population in extreme poverty, with the poverty threshold at 2.15 U.S. dollars a day, lived in Nigeria. Moreover, the Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for around 11.7 percent of the global population in extreme poverty. Other African nations with a large poor population were Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar. Poverty levels remain high despite the forecast decline Poverty is a widespread issue across Africa. Around 429 million people on the continent were living below the extreme poverty line of 2.15 U.S. dollars a day in 2024. Since the continent had approximately 1.4 billion inhabitants, roughly a third of Africa’s population was in extreme poverty that year. Mozambique, Malawi, Central African Republic, and Niger had Africa’s highest extreme poverty rates based on the 2.15 U.S. dollars per day extreme poverty indicator (updated from 1.90 U.S. dollars in September 2022). Although the levels of poverty on the continent are forecast to decrease in the coming years, Africa will remain the poorest region compared to the rest of the world. Prevalence of poverty and malnutrition across Africa Multiple factors are linked to increased poverty. Regions with critical situations of employment, education, health, nutrition, war, and conflict usually have larger poor populations. Consequently, poverty tends to be more prevalent in least-developed and developing countries worldwide. For similar reasons, rural households also face higher poverty levels. In 2024, the extreme poverty rate in Africa stood at around 45 percent among the rural population, compared to seven percent in urban areas. Together with poverty, malnutrition is also widespread in Africa. Limited access to food leads to low health conditions, increasing the poverty risk. At the same time, poverty can determine inadequate nutrition. Almost 38.3 percent of the global undernourished population lived in Africa in 2022.

Youth Unemployment Rate in South Africa decreased to 59.60 percent in the fourth quarter of 2024 from 60.20 percent in the third quarter of 2024. This dataset provides - South Africa Youth Unemployment Rate- actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.