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Statistics South Africa says 460 236 deaths were recorded in 2015 which marks a 3% decline compared with the previous period.
Statistician-General Pali Lehohla released the latest report on mortality rates and causes of death in South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday.
The report states that the three leading causes of death for 2015 in South Africa were tuberculosis, diabetes and cerebrovascular disease.
Tuberculosis killed more than 33 000 people in 2015, remaining the leading cause of death for many South Africans in the past three years.
It accounted for 7.2% of all deaths last year and averaged at least 7% each year in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
StatsSA said TB claimed the lives of more men than women and was responsible for 8.3% of male deaths. The majority of men also succumbed to HIV and pneumonia.
In comparison, women died from diabetes (responsible for 7.1% of these), cerebrovascular diseases and TB.
Diabetes accounted for 5.4% of all deaths in general.
The stats reveal that, on average, women are living longer than men with their life expectancy at 67.7 years in 2015, which is a step closer towards the goal of 70 by 2030.
The age group with the highest percentage of deaths was 60 to 64 years (7.8%), followed by age group 65 to 69 years (7.5%) and 55 to 59 years (7.4%).
The lowest percentage of deaths was among those aged 5 to 9 and 10 to 14 years, each representing 0.7% of total deaths in 2015.
Over half (55.5%) of deaths were attributed to non-communicable diseases.
Communicable diseases accounted for 33.4% of deaths, and injuries were responsible for 11.1% of deaths.
StatsSA said that, as could be expected, deaths due to non-natural causes were highest among the youth, with young males being the biggest casualties.
Processing the 2015 deaths took 14 months with hypertensive diseases, HIV, influenza and pneumonia, cerebrovascular diseases and other forms of heart disease being in the top 10 leading causes of death in 2015.
