The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has dismissed allegations that figures on deaths registered in the country are inaccurate.
ZIMSTAT insists the number remains accurate regardless of whether the deaths are registered officially or not.
This comes after stakeholders questioned the accuracy of mortality figures collected during the 2022 Population and Housing Census.
Speaking in an interview with NewsDay, on Wednesday, 07 February, ZIMSTAT demography and social statistics director Aluwisio Mukavhi said:
We want to set the record straight as far as our census is concerned. The census figures are correct with regard 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.
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 can calculate maternal mortality which are deaths due to maternal causes.
So, that was the whole idea of collecting this data so that we can calculate mortality rates.
There are under-five mortality, neonatal mortality, post-natal mortality and maternal mortality.
Mukavhi said there is a difference between data collection and official registration. He said:
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 the 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 10 deaths would have occurred, then they remain that number regardless of registration status.
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.
ZIMSTAT’s responsibilities include gathering data from various sources, including surveys, censuses, administrative records, and other relevant data sets.
However, some citizens view data released by ZIMSTAT with scepticism as there is a general distrust of figures released by government departments.
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