Diabetes is South Africa’s biggest killer, claiming 79 lives a day

Ask AI 6 min A finger-prick test takes seconds, but more than half of South Africans living with diabetes do not know they have it

Diabetes is wearing South Africa’s Grim Reaper crown once again, claiming about 79 lives a day and ranking as the country’s biggest killer , ahead of TB and HIV.

Stats SA's latest Mortality Report, released this month, shows diabetes accounted for 6.1% of the 474,366 deaths recorded in 2024.

The three leading causes of death in the country are now all non-communicable diseases — illnesses that cannot be passed from one person to another, including diabetes, heart disease, strokes, cancer and high blood pressure.

Communicable diseases, by contrast, are infections that can spread between people, such as tuberculosis, HIV and pneumonia.

Hypertensive diseases came second at 5.5%, and cerebrovascular diseases, which included strokes, third at 5.4%.