The United Nations (UN) defines Civil Registration as: “The continuous, permanent, compulsory, and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events (live births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, and divorces) and other civil status events pertaining to the population as provided by decree, law or regulation, in accordance with the legal requirements in each country.”[1]
The primary purpose of Civil Registration is to establish the legal documents required by law. Civil Registration establishes the individual’s right to recognition as a person before the law and is the fundamental source of legally valid identity data used across government services.
Civil Registration is a driver for accessing fundamental rights. Besides establishing a person’s legal identity from birth, such as name and date of birth, it also establishes legal family relations.
Civil Registration also enables states to fulfill the obligations they have contracted when ratifying human rights instruments that specifically guarantee such rights. For example, in the absence of exercising the right to legally identity through birth registration, other rights such as the right to education, health, and social protection might be significantly hampered, particularly for women and girls.
Health Information Systems capture, store, manage, or transmit information related to the health of individuals or the activities of organizations that work within the health sector.
The UN defines Vital Statistics as: “The collection of statistics on vital events in a lifetime of a person as well as relevant characteristics of the events themselves and of the person and persons concerned. Vital Statistics provide crucial and critical information on the population in a country.”[1] The vital events of interest are: live births, adoptions, legitimations, recognitions; deaths and fetal deaths; and marriages, divorces, separations, and annulments of marriage.
The functioning of the three systems depend on a series of common elements that include, but are not limited to: training, assessments and evaluations, identity management, data security and privacy, information and communications technology, etc.[2]
Why CRVS systems matter
High-quality, permanent and continuous Civil Registration/Vital Statistics (CR/VS) systems provide many benefits to individuals, nations, regions and communities:
For the individual, birth registration is needed to obtain a legal document that proves their identity, their name, sex, legal parents' names, and date and place of birth. That document may be necessary to vote, marry or secure employment. In some countries, it may be needed to obtain a driver’s licence, open a bank account, have access to social security or a pension, obtain insurance or a line of credit, and, significantly, be able to register one’s own children. It is also vitally important for securing inheritance
In many countries, births, marriages, divorces, and deaths are not universally or routinely registered, and the causes of death are not documented. It is estimated that the births of nearly one-quarter of children under the age of 5 worldwide have never been recorded. This means that people lack the documents they need to prove their identity to get access to basic services. Women and girls face unique barriers, including laws in some countries that require the signature of a husband or father on official registration documents.
For the nation, effective CRVS systems are essential for accurately planning programs to promote the wellbeing citizens. That includes demographic analyses of statistics, which are essential for planning social development, including the design and implementation of public health measures, maternal and child care, family planning, social security, education, housing and economic development. CRVS systems permit the production of statistics on population dynamics, health, and inequities in service delivery, providing more accurate information for assessing progress in improving economic growth and reducing poverty.
The data generated by Civil Registration systems can also be used to track progress toward 12 of the 17 United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals related to education, economic growth, employment, health, and disabilities.[3]
Civil Registration linked to Identity Management Systems or Population Register systems can increase tax revenues, modernize banking, and improve the overall delivery of social services. As a data source, Civil Registration systems can provide continuous, systematic, and up-to-date information on the population in complement to the population census.[4]
in economic terms, avoiding some of the costs of censuses and household surveys
making more accurate and timely data available for policy making
increased efficiency of social protection service is facilitated by easier identity validation and access to service. For example, having children registered can facilitate immunization and social protection programs,
potentially reducing fraud and other sources of corruption in the public sector by having one unique identifier for individuals
A 2015 study found that, even after controlling for factors like income and health systems strength, countries with well-functioning CRVS systems tend to have better health outcomes, including greater healthy life expectancy and lower rates of maternal and child mortality.[6][7]
At the local level, accurate information is essential for planning how to meet the needs of the community, particularly for health and education facilities, as well as for housing and evaluating labour/employment requirements.
Challenges and barriers to registration
In industrialized countries, CRVS and identity management systems are effective and fully operational. However, in many developing countries, they are still incomplete and in need of major improvements.
Outdated and inadequate legal frameworks governing Civil Registration and Vital Statistics
Lack of political vision
Limited understanding of the value of Vita Statistics on the part of policymakers (Vital Statistics)
Lack of coordination between government departments
Human resource skills and capacity gaps
Shortage of registration infrastructure and poor distribution of registration offices (Civil Registration)
Limited capacities for data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination (Vital Statistics)
Insufficient, inadequate, under-resourced or unwelcoming registration services (Civil Registration)
Inadequate operating budgets
Social barriers include:
People do not understand the importance of birth and death registration or are unwilling to register vital events
Linguistic differences and cultural practices are different from a country’s predominant language and practices
Stigma associated with teen births, or single mothers
Sociocultural practices around death or fear of being blamed for a death when registering the event
Legislation contradicts social norms
Gender inequality. For example, in some settings, only men can officially declare and register vital events
Tight deadlines for registration and penalties for noncompliance may have the perverse effect of increasing nonregistration.
Direct and indirect costs associated with registration, such as fees and travel
CRVS and gender
Evidence shows that boys and girls are registered almost equally at birth. However, these systems are particularly important to women and girls as CRVS data provide sex-disaggregated demographic data that allows policymaker to address existing inequalities in health, including maternal mortality.
Strong CRVS systems also provide proof of legal identity and social relationships. This makes it easier for women to access crucial services such as health, education, banking, political representation, and to lay claim to inheritance and/or property rights. Registering girls at birth and recording their marriages can also reveal and make it possible to prevent early and forced marriages. Unfortunately, few CRVS systems around the world record marriages and divorces.
The quality of a country’s CRVS systems has a bearing on women and girls, who are more vulnerable to poverty, early marriage, and exploitation. Without effective Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems, many women cannot gain access to social protection, health care, or economic and social opportunities. These negative effects of being unregistered can extend to a woman’s children, who often depend on their mother for access to health care, education, and protection.[8] As a result, they struggle to exercise their rights, gain social protection, and access basic services. They also remain invisible to governments.
Even where registration services are available, women and girls have more difficulties in accessing them and realizing their benefits: the cost of registration; requirements of a husband’s presence for a child’s registration; the system’s failure to capture customary marriages; burial practices; and inheritance laws.[9]
Legislation also often favours births being registered by male family representatives.[10] This poses a serious barrier for women to register the births of their children, particularly women who are unmarried, or have been displaced due to violence or conflict. The result is that the world’s most marginalized women and children are further disadvantaged.
Marriage, divorce, and death registration are also critical tools for women’s empowerment, and for facilitating access to social benefits and protections. These are needed to access property rights, pension benefits, child support, or inheritance when a marriage ends, or when a spouse or parent dies.[10]
The benefits of CRVS accrue at all stages of a woman’s life:
Birth registration may help prevent child marriage by proving the age of the child upon marriage. A study of 106 countries [11](including some where child marriage is illegal) showed a strong link between higher rates of birth registration and lower rates of child marriage.[12]
A birth certificate can help women gain financial independence, not only by widening their career opportunities, but by enabling them to open a bank account.
Marriage and divorce registration contribute to a woman’s ability to inherit property and other assets. Without formal marriage registration, upon a husband’s death, default inheritance may go to other male relatives, stripping women of economic security. Divorce certificates facilitate access to a pension, alimony, child support, and a fair share of the assets acquired in marriage.[13]
Evidence suggests that women’s deaths are less likely to be registered than men’s. This compromises governments’ abilities to identify preventable causes and develop policies and programs that reduce them.[10]
CRVS and identity management
The UN defines legal identity as: “the basic characteristics of an individual’s identity. e.g. name, sex, place and date of birth conferred through registration and the issuance of a certificate by an authorized CR authority following the occurrence of birth.” That certificate, or credential, can be a birth certificate, identity card or digital identity credential that is recognized as proof of legal identity under national law and in accordance with emerging international norms and principles.[10]
UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 calls for legal identity for all people worldwide, including birth registration, by 2030. Without identity, individuals are invisible: they are unable to access health care, vote, open a bank account. CRVS typically involves several ministries and institutions, including health institutions that notify the occurrence of births and deaths; the judicial system that records the occurrence of marriages, divorces, and adoptions; the national statistics office that produces Vital Statistics reports; and the civil registry.[14]
Although there is no internationally agreed definition of identity management, the term refers to the issuance of proof of legal identity to each person by a government authorized entity and the maintenance of systems for managing information and documents associated with such identity.[15]
In high-income countries, virtually everyone is registered from birth through Civil Registration and a birth certificate provides the proof of identity necessary for multiple purposes. In some countries, a computerized birth registration process assigns a unique identification number to each individual at birth, which makes it easier to locate records for a particular person in a database. The unique identification number also enables information about individuals to be linked across multiple administrative databases in a population register.
In many low- and middle-income countries, however, Civil Registration systems are still paper-based and coverage is incomplete so many people don’t have the documentation needed to establish individual identity. Research by the World Bank shows that more than 1.1 billion people worldwide are unable to prove who they are, a reality that exposes them to poverty, exploitation, and abusive treatment.[16]
There are substantive connections between national identity management and CR systems: Civil Registration systems should serve as the basis for individual identification and for the recording of ‘entry into’ and ‘exit from’ population registers. The birth certificate is considered the foundational document for all individual identity systems. The death certificate permits the removal of individuals from the register, which is important for updating electoral rolls, pensions and other social security mechanisms for the distribution of goods and services. As countries modernize their Civil Registration systems and develop national identification systems, the civil registry should also serve as the starting point for the unique identification of individuals.
Over the past decade, there has been increasing recognition that for Civil Registration to have the required impact, it needs to be integrated with national identity systems that deliver the link between foundational and functional (passport, banking, health, education, social welfare, etc.) identities. Linking CRVS and identity management systems can transform how governments empower and provide for their populations.[17]
According to a World Bank program review, “robust CRVS systems linked to identity management (IDM) systems and tailored to local contexts form the foundation of all sectors and pillars of the economy and contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs) to end poverty, and ensure prosperity for all.”[18]
On March 4, 2020, the UN Statistical Commission endorsed a new Legal Identity Agenda that “builds on the existing methodological framework for CR and Vital Statistics … and expands it to ensure a holistic and interoperable approach between Civil Registration, Vital Statistics production and identity management.”[19]
CRVS and social protection
It’s difficult to access social protection services and nearly impossible to participate in modern life without a legal identity. Millions of people are left on the margins of society as a result – particularly in countries with fragile economic and political climates, as these have the weakest institutions and the fewest resources to break the cycle of invisibility and exclusion.
Social protection programs are tools used by governments to prevent, manage, and overcome situations that adversely affect people’s well-being. Social protection programs typically attempt to reach excluded or marginalized groups. Inefficiencies, mismanagement, and corruption in the distribution of social protection benefits highlight the need for individuals that depend on these benefits to have legal identity documents.
The link between legal identity and social protection is a two-way relationship: individuals that don’t have trusted identity credentials cannot normally access social protection benefits, and not having access to social protection benefits means there are fewer incentives for individuals to register their vital events (births, marriages, divorces, deaths) with governments. As a result, governments struggle to close the legal identity gaps. The people who are always most affected are the poorest segments of the population.[20]
CRVS resilience
Crises and emergencies put additional strains on CRVS systems. Archives can be destroyed, records can be lost and the barriers facing people to who wish to register a life event can seem more daunting. During a crisis, maintaining and strengthening CRVS systems is generally not a priority. Yet governments need accurate, reliable and timely data to plan and respond to the crisis as well as continuing development priorities.
Crises and emergencies due to conflict, climate and COVID-19 are on the rise. Despite the hardships, life in conflict, emergency, and fragile situations continues – people are born, marry, divorce, and die. Civil registration and identification systems are particularly important in these contexts. Without functioning CRVS systems, people can be prevented from accessing basic rights and services.[21]
In all these situations, it is critical that governments have robust disaster risk reduction plans in place that protect CR records. Protecting CRVS systems must be part of each country’s adaptation plans to ensure that conflict, natural disasters and pandemics do not leave populations without access to rights and services.
CRVS and COVID-19
As governments around the world rush to control the spread of COVID-19 and provide medical, nutritional, and financial support where it is most needed, the importance of a well-functioning CRVS system has been thrown into sharp relief. The importance of maintaining CR during the pandemic has been underscored by the United Nations which considers that “Civil Registration should be considered an ‘essential service’ mandated to continue operations during a pandemic.” [22]
Access to accurate and complete data about the age and family structure of populations in specific towns or villages, as well as the locations and causes of deaths as they happen, offers immediate value to governments during such times of crisis.[23]
To illustrate the enormous challenges civil registration faces in times of emergency, the UN Statistics Division (UNSD), with support from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, initiated a survey in April and May 2020.[24] It requested member states to assess the extent of COVID-19-related disruptions to CR and report on experiences and efforts to maintain services.[25] While all considered CR activities to be essential, 13% indicated that their respective governments refrained from placing the civil registration function on the list of essential services that must be provided, even during a pandemic, largely to minimize the risks of exposure to the virus.[26] Many countries reported closures of CR offices due to “stay at home” orders and partial provision of services. Even when facilities remained open, demand for birth and death registration fell because of social distancing orders, movement restrictions, and fear of becoming infected.[27]
The findings were used to develop guidelines and recommendations to countries. The most critical of which was for countries to digitize and computerize their civil registration system and apparatus.”[25] Research conducted by UNECA and the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems also found that countries with digitized notification and registration systems experienced fewer disruptions, ensuring continuous recording of vital events during an emergency. Digital tools make it possible for clients to notify and register vital events as they occur, and reduce the risks related to late registration and non-registration of children.[28]
CRVS in conflict and emergencies
The world has seen a significant increase in emergencies recently, both human and natural. The number of forcibly displaced people rose sharply in the last decade to 80 million. It’s common for CRVS systems to become dysfunctional or even collapse entirely in emergency situations. Births, deaths, and other vital events go unregistered when this happens. Important information and documentation can also be lost or destroyed.[29]
As a result, individuals are denied the benefits of a legal identity at the time of their greatest need. These benefits include freedom of movement, social protection, and basic services such as health care and education. What’s more, a lack of accurate and up-to-date data makes it harder for governments and organizations to respond to emergency situations effectively.
In situations of disasters and emergencies, Civil Registration systems play a crucial role such as supporting reunification of individuals with their families and providing critical data to governments needed for planning for relief and other forms of assistance. Nevertheless, during times of disasters, Civil Registration systems are also largely disrupted which affects their ability to support these critical functions.
In fragile regions affected by conflict, CRVS is increasingly seen as an essential tool for state-building and good governance. But to make it work, decision-makers need to tackle some tough challenges – both political and technical.[30]
In such contexts, setting up or re-establishing Vital Statistics can unleash critical data to guide resource allocation and priority setting.[30] It can also help avert further crises, for instance by tracking epidemiological trends. CRVS can help restore fractured state-society relationships and foster the integration of marginalized social groups; providing formal identity that safeguards basic rights, including the right to vote and access to services. These can serve as building blocks for support to broader peacebuilding and state-building processes.
The legal status of transgender people varies greatly around the world. Some countries have enacted laws protecting the rights of transgender individuals, but others have criminalized their gender identity or expression. In many cases, transgender individuals face discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and other areas of life.
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth. Depending on the jurisdiction, a record of birth might or might not contain verification of the event by a healthcare professional such as a midwife or doctor.
An identity document is any document that may be used to prove a person's identity. If issued in a small, standard credit card size form, it is usually called an identity card, or passport card. Some countries issue formal identity documents, as national identification cards that may be compulsory or non-compulsory, while others may require identity verification using regional identification or informal documents. When the identity document incorporates a person's photograph, it may be called photo ID.
Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, illegitimacy, also known as bastardy, has been the status of a child born outside marriage, such a child being known as a bastard, a love child, a natural child, or illegitimate. In Scots law, the terms natural son and natural daughter carry the same implications.
A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as entered in an official register of deaths.
Transgender rights in Canada, including procedures for changing legal gender and protections from discrimination, vary among provinces and territories, due to Canada's nature as a federal state. According to the 2021 Canadian census, 59,460 Canadians identify as transgender. Canada was ranked third in Asher & Lyric's Global Trans Rights Index in 2023.
Vital statistics is accumulated data gathered on live births, deaths, migration, foetal deaths, marriages and divorces. The most common way of collecting information on these events is through civil registration, an administrative system used by governments to record vital events which occur in their populations. Efforts to improve the quality of vital statistics will therefore be closely related to the development of civil registration systems in countries. Civil registration followed the practice of churches keeping such records since the 19th century.
The General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO) is the section of the United Kingdom HM Passport Office responsible for the civil registration of births, adoptions, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths in England and Wales and for those same events outside the UK if they involve a UK citizen and qualify to be registered in various miscellaneous registers. With a small number of historic exceptions involving military personnel, it does not deal with records of such events occurring within the land or territorial waters of Scotland, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland; those entities' registration systems have always been separate from England and Wales.
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was a federal assistance program in the United States in effect from 1935 to 1997, created by the Social Security Act (SSA) and administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provided financial assistance to children whose families had low or no income.
A national identification number, national identity number, or national insurance number or JMBG/EMBG is used by the governments of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purposes of work, taxation, government benefits, health care, and other governmentally-related functions.
Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in different subnational jurisdictions. It can be called a civil registry, civil register, vital records, and other terms, and the office responsible for receiving the registrations can be called a bureau of vital statistics, registry of vital records and statistics, registrar, registry, register, registry office, or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create a legal document that can be used to establish and protect the rights of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of vital statistics.
General Register Office or General Registry Office (GRO) is the name given to the civil registry in the United Kingdom, many other Commonwealth nations and Ireland. The GRO is the government agency responsible for the recording of vital records such as births, deaths, and marriages, which may also include adoptions, stillbirths, civil unions, etc., and historically, sometimes included records relating to deeds and other property transactions.
Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses, separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some jurisdictions, vital records may also include records of civil unions or domestic partnerships.
A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office, is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are registered. It is the licensed local of civil registry.
A government database collects information for various reasons, including climate monitoring, securities law compliance, geological surveys, patent applications and grants, surveillance, national security, border control, law enforcement, public health, voter registration, vehicle registration, social security, and statistics.
In the United States, the traditional family structure is considered a family support system involving two married individuals providing care and stability for their biological offspring. However, this two-parent, heterosexual, nuclear family has become less prevalent, and nontraditional family forms have become more common. The family is created at birth and establishes ties across generations. Those generations, the extended family of aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins, can hold significant emotional and economic roles for the nuclear family.
Created in 2007, the Universal Civil Identity Program in the Americas (PUICA) is the area of the Organization of American States (OAS) that is devoted to civil identity. It belongs to the Department for Effective Public Management within the Secretariat for Political Affairs.
The Sultanate of Oman has an area of 309,500 square kilometers and is composed of varying topographic areas consisting of plains (3%), mountains (15%), and wadies, or dry river bed valleys, and desert (82%).This geographical complexity posed a challenge for Directorate General of Civil Status (DGCS) and the Royal Oman Police (ROP) to upkeep the civil registration status. The National Registration System (NRS) is a CRVS system that links 12 civil status directorates throughout the sultanate. It is operated by qualified staff and utilizes sophisticated computer systems. However, these 12 civil directorates were established only in the main towns of Oman. For people who are living in remote areas, they do not have access to these directorates. They will have to travel a great distance to register or renew their civil status; it is costly for many of these folks.
In France, the Fichier des personnes décédées is a central register of persons who have died in the country since 1970. It is maintained by the national statistics bureau Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (Insee). Since October 2019, the register has been accessible online free of charge and without registration.
The Addis Ababa City Administration is a government executive organ of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It is governed by mayor, and the lowest administrative unit is the woreda, led by a woreda administrator. As a federal structure the woreda administration has an elected council.
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