• The Registrar General of India (RGI) released the Vital Statistics of India based on Civil Registration System (CRS) 2023 report.
• The CRS is a continuous, permanent, and compulsory recording of vital events (births, deaths, still births).
• Governed by the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969 — recently amended in 2023 to enable:
  • Digital registration of vital events,
  • Creation of national & state-level databases,
  • Integration with other population databases (e.g., Aadhaar, Census).
• CRS data forms the basis for estimating vital statistics such as birth rate, death rate, and infant mortality rate.
• It provides insights into the population dynamics, effectiveness of government health programs and tracks mortality, continuous gender imbalances and is vital for evidence-based policy formulation.

KEY FINDINGS

• Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB):

• • 928 females per 1000 males (excluding Sikkim).
  • Highest: Arunachal Pradesh (1085)
  • Lowest: Jharkhand (899).

• Births:

• • Registered births decreased by 0.9% over 2022.
  • Level of Registration (LoR): 98.4%.
  • Urban areas reported more registered births than rural.

• Deaths:

• • Registered deaths increased by 0.1% over 2022.
  • LoR (Deaths): 97.2%.
  • Rural areas recorded more deaths than urban.
  • Infant deaths saw a marginal increase.

• Gender differential: Birth and death registration higher for males across both rural and urban regions.
• The share of institutional births to total registered births is 74.7 %. (Excluding Sikkim).

SIMILAR REPORTS

• Sample Registration System (SRS): Conducted by RGI to estimate birth/death rates via survey sampling.
• National Family Health Survey (NFHS): Conducted by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, focuses on health & population indicators, not official registration.