Of the 607 184 deaths which occurred in 2006, tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia were the most common causes, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

According to the mortality and causes of death statistical release, the number of deaths continues to increase in the country with slightly more male than female deaths.

The prevalence of causes of death also remained unchanged between 2005 and 2006.

"For both years, the dominant contributors to the growth in mortality were deaths associated with tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia," the release said.

This was the case among women and men.

Intestinal infectious diseases, influenza and pneumonia contributed to the highest percentage of deaths among infants aged less than a year and children between the ages of one and four years.

Cerebrovascular diseases and other forms of heart disease were the two leading contributors to deaths in people 50 years and above.

Overall certain disorders involving the immune mechanism such as common immunodeficiency and those associated with other major defects were the eighth leading underlying cause of death.

HIV was the ninth.

Each of them accounted for slightly over two percent of all deaths.

The majority of deaths were linked to natural and the contribution of natural deaths to the overall number of deaths continued to increase over time.

There was also indirect evidence that HIV may be contributing to the increase in the level of mortality for prime-aged adults given the increase in the number of deaths due to associated diseases.

Non-natural deaths - of which transport accidents and assaults were the most common causes - have declined from 17 percent in 1997 to nine percent in 2006.

Male deaths in this category were mostly due to assaults while female deaths were mostly transport accident related.

Northern Cape, Western Cape had the highest percentage of deaths due to assault while Limpopo had the highest percentage due to transport accidents.

The proportion of deaths linked to maternal conditions have remained "almost the same" between 1997 and 2006 at 0.2 percent of all deaths.