{"id":43426,"date":"2026-08-21T17:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=43426"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:41:52","slug":"new-data-shows-chronic-illness-driving-majority-of-deaths-in-rwanda","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/new-data-shows-chronic-illness-driving-majority-of-deaths-in-rwanda\/","title":{"rendered":"New data shows chronic illness driving majority of deaths in Rwanda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes have quietly become Rwanda&#8217;s biggest killers, now driving nearly six out of every 10 deaths outside health facilities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>New data released by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR) in its Rwanda Vital Statistics Report 2025 paints a sobering picture of a shifting health landscape. Non-communicable diseases accounted for 58.8% of deaths in local communities and nearly half of all hospital fatalities last year, pulling ahead of traditional infectious illnesses.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The data also showed a notable gender gap in mortality, recording roughly 127 male deaths for every 100 female deaths.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Beyond mortality, the country is seeing steady demographic shifts. The average number of children per woman dropped to 3.5, while official birth registrations climbed to almost 93%. Meanwhile, marriage rates dipped slightly to just over 50 000 legal unions, and courts granted more than 2 600 divorces, with Kigali City accounting for the vast majority of split households.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica\/NISR&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43427,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-43426","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Chronic illness drives surging mortality in Rwanda","published_date":"2026-08-21 17:22:46","news_description":"Chronic illness drives surging mortality in Rwanda","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43428,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/43426\/revisions\/43428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=43426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}