Beverly Bizeki
Preliminary results for the 2022 population and housing census have revealed that rural areas in Zimbabwe top the mortality rates with a low life expectancy rate as compared to urban areas.
In a preliminary report released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat), 121 078 deaths were recorded over the 12 months preceding to the census.
“A total of 121 078 deaths were reported in the last 12 months preceding the census. Crude death rate was 8 deaths per 1 000 population,” read part of the report.
Matabeleland South recorded the highest average death rate at 9.7 deaths per 1000 population.
Only 41.4 percent of the deaths were registered whilst 34.8 percent were registered in rural areas and 56.5 percent were registered in urban areas.
The national life expectancy stands at 64.7 years with females having a higher life expectancy of 68 years compared to males who have a life expectancy of 61.2 years.
Generally the life expectancy in urban areas is higher than in rural areas standing at 65.5 years and 63.3 years respectively.
The report also showed that the neonatal rate stands at 9.5 deaths per 1 000 live births whilst post neonatal rate stands at 14.7 per 1 000 live births with rural areas having higher rates of neonatal, post neonatal and infant child and under 5 mortality deaths.
1589 maternal deaths were recorded in the report.
“A total of 1 589 maternal deaths were reported against 437 478 live births giving a national Martenal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 363 deaths per 100 000 live births. MMR was higher in rural areas (402 deaths per 100 000 live births) than in urban areas with 298 per 100 000 live births),” added part of the report.
The report further shows that the lifetime risk of maternal mortality is 14.6 deaths per 1 000 women of child bearing age and is higher in rural areas.
Lifetime risk of maternal mortality was higher in rural areas standing at 18.6 women per 1000 as compared to the urban risk of 9.8 women per 1000,” read part of the report.
The report also shows that 7.7 percent of children below 17 years are orphans with prevalence higher in rural areas at 8.4 percent as compared to 6.3 percent in urban areas.
