THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has dismissed reports that figures on deaths registered in the country are inaccurate arguing the number remains accurate regardless of whether they are registered officially or not.
ZimStat was reacting to concerns raised over the accuracy of mortality figures collected during the 2022 Population and Housing Census.
In an interview yesterday, ZimStat demography and social statistics director Aluwisio Mukavhi dismissed claims that the population figures are possibly distorted due to unregistered deaths.
“We want to set the record straight as far as our census is concerned. The census figures are correct with regards to mortality numbers.
“What happened is that during the census, our enumerators were approaching households and they were asking about deaths which would have occurred in the past 12 months of the census,” he said.
Mukavhi said ZimStat had recorded the deaths per household.
“After that we would ask if the death is registered or not and we would further ask the sex of the deceased so that at the end of the day we can calculate the numbers by sex.
“We also capture their age, we also capture the issue to do with maternal mortality so that we are able to calculate maternal mortality which are deaths due to maternal causes.
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“So, basically that was the whole idea of collecting this data so that we are able to calculate mortality rates. There are under-fives mortality, neonatal mortality, post-natal mortality and maternal mortality,” Mukavhi said.
He clarified the difference between data collection and official registration.
“So going to the issue of distortion of numbers due to registration or non-registration of a death, those two things are different, they are not linked.
“If at household level let’s say we have captured that two people have died, then if the deaths are not registered, it does not distort the cumulative number of the deaths which would have occurred during the census period.
“The numbers are accurate, the registration is something else. For example if there are 10 deaths that would have occurred, then they remain that number regardless of registration status.”
Mukavhi said ZimStat adhered to international standards in data collection and processing.
“The distortion which needs to be corrected is that ‘the census figures might be distorted because some deaths were not registered — it is not correct,” he said.
