HIV/AIDS deaths are a driving factor behind a slowing of South Africa's population growth rate for the second year in a row, Statistics South Africa (SSA) said Monday.

Over a one-year period ending June 2009, the population rose 1.07 percent, compared with 1.1 percent during the previous 12 months. In 2001-02, the growth rate was 1.38 percent, a report by the Pretoria-based statistics agency said.

AIDS will likely kill 263,900 South Africans in 2009, accounting for 43 percent of all estimated deaths, the report said. Nearly 11 percent of the country's population, or 5.2 million people, are infected with HIV/AIDS, including one in five women ages 15-49.

SSA said there is evidence that antiretroviral drugs have increased life expectancy for people with HIV/AIDS and reduced the number of infant deaths. For males, life expectancy is estimated to have increased to 53.5 in 2009, up from 53.3 in 2008, after declining every year from 2001 to 2004. Infant mortality fell to 46 per 1,000 live births in 2009, compared with 46.4 last year, the report found. "This increase in life expectancy at birth is expected to continue," it said, adding that about 800,000 HIV-infected people over age 15 and another 70,000 children are expected to receive ARVs this year.