Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) has revealed that about 63% of births registered in 2018 had no information on fathers.
Stats SA released its annual Recorded Live Births report for 2018 on Thursday.
According to the report, 1,009,065 births were recorded last year. Of these, just under 38% had information on who the fathers were.
Stats SA nevertheless put a rider on these startling statistics – it only reports on information about the father, not whether he is in the child’s life or not.
It added that the number of registered births went up by 2% from 2017’s figure.
Teenagers aged 10-14 give birth
More concerning statistics reveal that 1,287 children were born to young girls aged between 10 and 14 in 2018.
Most of their fathers were aged 17-25 years.
Nevertheless, mothers aged 25-29 years accounted for the most number of birth registrations.
Gauteng had the highest proportion of registered births at 20.9%, followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 20.4%.
Northern Cape had the lowest at 2.4%, while Free State constituted 5.1% of total registered births.
Most popular names and surnames
For boys born in 2018, Enzokuhle was the most popular name. Lethabo and Melokuhle were also among the most preferred.
For girls, the three most popular names were Enzokuhle, Melokuhle and Amahle.
Dlamini, Nkosi and Ndlovu were the top three surnames given to both genders.
Overall, Nguni surnames dominated the top ten list, with Mokoena the only non-Nguni surname featuring at number six.