Infant mortality rates in urban areas of South Africa, 1981-1985.

National infant mortality rates (IMRs) for South Africa are at present based on guestimates. There is no reliable national black IMR estimate. A study was undertaken to determine the IMR for 10 large urban areas (where records are available) for 1981-1985 and to use these to estimate a national black IMR. Considerable variability in the IMR was found for blacks both between cities and years. An overall national IMR estimate for blacks of between 94 and 124 deaths per thousand live births was obtained. This is about twice as high as the national figure of 51.9 for coloureds. The coloured non-urban rate was 2.6 times the urban rate of 25.9 while the Asian and white rates were similar in urban and non-urban areas (17.9 and 12.3 respectively).