The Causes of Death 2008 dataset contains 606,699 records of deaths in South Africa. Variables include type of death (individual or stillborn), age, sex, place of death, province of residence, immediate cause of death, underlying cause of death, and other conditions leading to death.

The microdata is based on death notification forms received from the Department of Home Affairs. In the coding process, the underlying causes were determined by using the Automated Classification of Medical Entities (ACME) software program. This dataset does not include late registrations. A summary report on Mortality and Causes of Death 2008 is also available from Statistics South Africa.