FUN FACTS TO KNOW & TELL, SEPTEMBER 2024
TO LIVE AND DIE IN ANDERSON COUNTY
“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.”—Andy Dufrene, in The Shawshank Redemption
The South Carolina Department of Public Health released its Vital Statistics report for 2022 in May of this year. Vital Statistics are generally defined as “statistics relating to births, deaths, marriages, health, and disease.” SCDPH usually releases its annual vital statistics report 18 months after the conclusion of a given calendar year (there’s a lot of data, and it takes time to compile and analyze it all). Check the data yourself if you’re so inclined. You can find it here: https://dph.sc.gov/professionals/public-health-data/biostatistics-publications
- In 2018, the number of deaths in Anderson County began to exceed the number of births, and this trend has continued through the end of 2022. Deaths outpaced births by one-half of one percentage point that year; however, during each of the two pandemic peak years (2020 and 2021), the number of births was 25% less than the number of deaths. In 2022, there were 11% fewer births than deaths.
- Demographers call death outpacing births a “natural decrease,” and it’s certainly not unique to Anderson County. South Carolina experienced a natural population decrease from 2020 through 2022, although the percentage difference between births and deaths was half that observed here in Anderson County.
- All of this doesn’t mean that our residents have quit having babies. In fact, 2022 saw 2,416 births to Anderson County mothers—the highest number since 2008 (2,439 born that year). Births increased almost 7% from 2020 to 2021 and more than 5% from 2021 to 2022. Simply put—Anderson County has an older population. More than 18% of county residents are aged 65 years and over, compared to 16.5% in the United States. With an older population, we’d reasonably expect to see instances of natural decrease when reviewing our vital statistics. But we can generally count on having at least 2,200 babies arriving each year, give or take a hundred or so.
- Anderson County mothers appear to be receiving satisfactory prenatal care in most instances. In 2022, almost 77% of mothers here had 11 or more prenatal visits compared to 65% of mothers statewide. 11% of local newborns had either low or very low birth weights—the statewide number was around 12%.
There may be a perception among some that there is an alarming rate of births to unwed teenage mothers, but the data does not appear to support that idea. There were 990 live births to unmarried Anderson County mothers in 2022. As it would be, 36% of these births were to women aged 20 to 24, 26% to women aged 25 to 29, and 16% to women aged 30 to 34. Women aged 15 to 19 years accounted for 13% of births to unmarried mothers and only 5% of all births. There were no recorded births to anyone younger than 15 in 2022.
- In 2022, 60% of all Anderson County newborns had mothers with a post-high school education.
- 2,712 county residents died in 2022. The mortality rate among whites was 13.9 per 1,000 population. The mortality rate among non-whites was 9.0 per 1,000.
- County-level numbers do not appear readily available, but statewide, the ten leading causes of death are Diseases of the Heart (19.7%), Malignant Neoplasms (18.1%), Accidents (7.8%); COVID-19 (5.7%); Cerebrovascular Diseases (5.1%); Chronic Lower Respiratory Diseases (4.7%); Alzheimer’s Disease (4.0%); Diabetes Mellitus 2.9%); Chronic Liver Disease and Cirrhosis (1.8%); Nephritis, Nephrotic Syndrome and Nephrosis (1.6%).
- Cremation has become the most prevalent means for the disposition of remains after death, accounting for 53% of dispositions. Burial accounted for 42%. Three percent were entombed, one percent removed to another jurisdiction, and 0.4% classified as “Other.” (EDITOR’S NOTE: We’d prefer not to speculate on what methods the “Other” category might include…)
- 175 county residents suffered accidental deaths in 2022. These included 51 transportation-related, 70 poisonings, 26 falls, 2 attributed to fire & flames, two drownings, and one by firearm. We also had 15 deaths by homicide that year. Firearms were the method used in 14 of those killings.
- Those desiring a religious service upon death, either for themselves or a loved one, certainly do not lack for choices. Anderson County’s GIS maps show a total of 1,022 fixed addresses that are described as a church, synagogue, or Kingdom Hall. There are also 223 known cemeteries serving our community.
“No, I don’t want a battle from beginning to end
I don’t want a cycle of recycled revenge
I don’t want to follow death and all of his friends…” – Coldplay
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