The prevalence of HIV among people in South Africa has risen to 13.1 percent, according to figures released by South Africa's Statistician-General Risenga Maluleke on Monday.

"People living with HIV in 2018 are estimated to be sitting at 7.52-million persons. Of course we are looking at people in South Africa living a lot more healthier. With the proliferation and availability of ARVs, there are more people [with HIV] living so it's not a question of the numbers just increasing," said Maluleke in Pretoria.

"Certainly, we still have new infections, but the fact is that the people are living a lot more longer with ARVs. Over time, HIV prevalence among adults aged 15 to 49 is increasing while declining among youth 15 to 24 [years]."

The number of AIDS related deaths has been on a consistent decline from 276,921 in 2007 to 115,167 in 2018.

The total number of people living with HIV in South Africa has however increased from an estimated 4.25-million in 2002 to the 7.52-million by 2018. For 2018, approximately one-fifth of women in South Africa in their reproductive ages [15 to 49] are HIV positive, according to StatsSA.

Earlier, Maluleke revealed that South Africa's population has risen to 57.7-million.

"We are talking about mid-year population estimates which use the latest fertility, mortality and migration data to estimate the size of the population of the Republic of South Africa. Now, the mid-year estimates for 2018, we are sitting at 57.73-million people that are living in South Africa," said Maluleke.

"In 2017 we were sitting at 56.8-million. We had 1.2-million births, a 0.2 net migration and we had about half a million deaths."

Approximately 51 percent [about 29.5-million] of the people in South Africa are female.

About 29.5 percent of the population is aged younger than 15 years, and approximately 8.5 [percent ( or 4.89-million] of the population is 60 years or older.