The first Injury Mortality Survey (IMS) in South Africa aimed to capture the profile of non-natural deaths for 2009 (2009 IMS). The second IMS, conducted in 2017 (2017 IMS), is followed by this report, which presents findings from the third IMS for the 2020/21 period (2020/21 IMS).

BoDRU, in collaboration with the Gender and Health and Biostatistics unit, conducted a survey of more than 25,000 non-natural deaths that presented to mortuaries in 2017 in order to:

• describe the incidence of fatal injury rates in South Africa by age, sex and cause
• compare the provincial injury mortality rates for fatal injuries

Key messages of the 2nd Injury Mortality Survey for 2017 include: