Civil Registration and Vital Statistics:
A Passport for a Healthy Life and a Thriving Society

Public Services and Benefits

A person’s legal identity established through birth registration allows access to public services.​

Without birth registration, parents often face barriers to enrolling their children in school or seeing a doctor.⁵ Later in life it can cause problems for receiving a pension or social services. ​

Governments require identity and age verification for: ​

• Education ​
• Health care ​
• Social protection programs and services​
• Pensions ​

​Exclusion from these vital services increases vulnerability and perpetuating cycles of poverty.

Protection from Exploitation

Proof of age is an essential element of government protection programs and for preventing child labor and child marriage through the enforcement of laws.¹⁰​

Birth registration provides identity and age verification which helps protect against a range of issues. ​

• Forced and underage marriage – There are lower rates of child marriage in countries where birth registration rates are high.^11​
• Child labor – Regions with highest child labor rates also have low rates of birth registration.​
• Justice systems – Proof of age is necessary to safeguard a child from being detained with adults and to protect children from prosecution as adults.¹²​
• Child soldiers – Birth registration is an important tool for preventing child recruitment.¹³ In Mali, birth registration has played a role in facilitating children’s release and reintegration.¹⁴ ​
• Protection from violence – Registration helps achieve convictions against those who have abused a child.^10​

Financial Inclusion

The first step to formalizing an economy is registering births; otherwise, people don’t exist administratively. Birth registrations enable access to formal employment, bank accounts and loans and ownership of property.

Registered citizens are more likely to be engaged in the formal economy and job market and to access social benefits.¹⁵ Legal identity is a prerequisite for accessing financial systems like bank accounts and loans. This also facilitates ownership of property.¹⁶​ ​

As lower- and middle-income countries' economies digitize, a digitally verified identity facilitates equal participation of populations in the digital economy through cash-less payments.¹⁷​

Obtaining Identity Documents

Birth registration is the gateway to legal identity and the key that unlocks all other identity documents.​

Birth registration provides the first and most fundamental proof of legal identity.¹⁸​

A birth certificate is often considered a “breeder document" needed to obtain other identification documents¹⁹ including:​

• driver’s license ​
• passport​
• national ID cards ​
• legal gender recognition​​

In India, a birth certificate has been mandated to be the only accepted proof of date of birth for new passport applicants born after 2023.²⁰ Kenya requires a birth certificate to issue a national identification card²¹ or passport.²²​

Citizen's Rights

Right to Vote: A birth certificate proving identity and age is the gateway to democratic participation in civil society, enabling a person to vote and run for electoral office.²⁴​ ​

Since electoral rolls are often derived from the civil register, the accuracy of birth and death data is essential for ensuring transparent and credible voting processes and preventing electoral fraud.^26​

Access to Justice: Legal identity and proof of age established through birth registration is required for individuals to claim rights and legal protections, initiate legal proceedings and engage fully in civic and legal systems.

​SDG 16 calls for inclusive societies with “access to justice for all”, and its Target 16.9 specifically aims to “provide legal identity for all, including birth registration” by 2030. The UN views birth registration and legal identity as critical to promoting the rule of law and equal access to rights.²⁷​

Marriage Registration

Marriage registration provides legal recognition of the union, critical for securing certain rights, legal protections and economic security. It can help governments prevent marriage fraud and bigamy.^28​

Women – Without marriage registration, widows may lose income, spousal pension and social insurance, and face complications in claiming property, inheritance, child custody and the right to remarry.^29​

Children – Marriage registration may allow a child the right to inherit property and status of "legitimacy."³⁰ Compulsory registration also contributes to the prevention of child marriage.³¹ ​

Divorce registration helps facilitate access to pensions, alimony, child support, child custody and a fair share of the assets and division of debt.³¹ Divorce can demonstrate a person’s right to remarry and can offer legal freedom from an abusive marriage.³²​

Death Registration

Death registration is the legal proof that someone has died and is required for many administrative and legal purposes. ​It ensures that surviving families have legal, social and economic benefits and are not left vulnerable.​

Documenting a family member's death is essential for:​

• survivors to access inheritance and property rights by proving their right to inherit the deceased’s assets³³ ​
• families to claim social benefits, such as pensions, life insurance or government support for widows, widowers or dependent children³⁴ ​
• legal procedures such as probate and determining guardianship of minor children^35​
• ​allowing the surviving spouse to remarry

Public Health -​ Registering Deaths to Save Lives​

Public health interventions cannot be effectively planned without accurate, comprehensive and up to date information on births, deaths, stillbirths and causes of deaths.³⁷​

The most effective means of getting that data is through a fully functioning CRVS system.³⁸ ​

With that data, health authorities can identify disease patterns, monitor mortality rates and allocate resources effectively.³⁹​

Without reliable civil registration data, public health planning risks being reactive, fragmented and misaligned with actual population health needs.

National Security

A robust civil registration system provides certainty about who resides in a country which has implications for policing, border control, voter fraud and transnational crime. ​

Civil registration is the foundation of an accurate population register. Incomplete population registers and undocumented people pose challenges for policing and counter terrorism. ​

Police rely on identity records to identify suspects and ensure offenders do not assume false identities. Many police forces integrate national identification databases, based on civil registration, with criminal records.⁴¹ ​

Birth and death registration prevent identity fraud, strengthening border control and preventing transnational crimes.^42​

Effective electoral rolls “are not possible without recording births and deaths.” There is no electoral legitimacy unless citizen are sure everyone has only one vote.^43​

These population and identity registers serve a national security interest by assisting in monitoring citizenship status, immigration and prevents crimes like drug and human trafficking.⁴⁴

Infrastructure and Development Planning​

Accurate, up-to-date vital statistics and population data is indispensable for infrastructure and development planning decisions and resource allocation. ​

The data enables planners to identify high-density areas, understand fertility rates, population growth and other demographic information to predict future needs. Areas of infrastructure planning influenced by population size, distribution and demographics include:​

• Roads, bridges and public transport​
• Utilities such as energy, water and sanitation and waste management⁴⁵​
• Telecommunications and digital infrastructure⁴⁶ ​
• Food supplies and agricultural needs⁴⁷​
• Housing⁴⁸​
• Public safety and emergency services⁴⁹​
• Education provision⁵⁰​

Infrastructure and development decisions taken without accurate and up to date population data risk large-scale, inappropriate allocation of recourses and budgets. ​

Economic Development​

Birth registration drives participation in the formal economy, increases human capital, and increases tax revenue.​

Formalizing the economy: Registration facilitates the inclusion of populations in the formal economy, improving participation of informal sector workers and enabling their access to legal and social security protections. Registered citizens are more likely to pay taxes.⁵² ​

Increasing Human Capital: Birth certificates act as a 'gateway document' to access education and healthcare in many countries.⁵³ Access to education and health are key indicators of human capital development which drive overall economic growth. ​

Cost savings: By improving accuracy in population data through a robust CRVS system, governments' ability to develop national economic plans and allocate budgets is strengthened.⁵⁴ CRVS systems enable cost savings on public service delivery, by preventing costly duplication of population count across fragmented government branches.⁵⁵ ​

Entitlement to Services

Accurate identity information derived from birth and death registration enables governments to determine entitlement to benefits and services, enhance service delivery and prevent fraud. ​ ​

Integrated Digital ID Systems: Governments increasingly utilize integrated digital identity systems, such as Unique Personal Identifiers (UPIs) generated at birth, using birth and death registration to ensure robust identity verification across multiple public services.⁵⁶​

Social Services and Pensions Administration: Social protection programs rely on identity data to target beneficiaries. A unique identity from birth prevents duplicate or fraudulent claims.⁵⁷ ​

Education and Healthcare: Reliable identity data helps governments deliver healthcare services more efficiently, manage vaccination programs effectively and minimize the risk of duplication or fraud within public health insurance systems.​