CRS 2023: How Big Cities Dominate India’s Birth and Death Registrations

thumbnail birth & death registration

TL;DR India registered 252 lakh births and 87 lakh deaths in 2023, continuing its near-complete coverage under the Civil Registration System (CRS). A district-level look at the data reveals sharp contrasts: large urban centres like Chennai, Bengaluru Urban, Jaipur, Hyderabad, and Lucknow record a disproportionately high share of registrations, while many smaller or rural districts report much fewer registrations. These imbalances largely reflect differences in healthcare access, migration patterns, and where births and deaths are most likely to be registered and not necessarily where people live.

Context
The “Report on Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System (CRS) 2023” gives a detailed picture of how births and deaths are recorded across the country. These records are essential for understanding population changes and for planning health services, education, social welfare programmes, and local development.

Who Compiles This Data?
Birth and death registration in India is governed by the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, overseen by the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI). Each state has a Chief Registrar who ensures that all births and deaths are recorded and reported. ORGI compiles this information into an annual publication: “Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System.”

Where can I download Clean & Structured Data of the Births & Deaths Registered in India ?
Clean, structured, and ready-to-use datasets on births and deaths from the Civil Registration System (CRS) is available for download on Dataful. It provides insights on year, state, region, and gender-wise births and deaths registered, infant births, still births and so on.

Key Insights

Births and Deaths Registered in India (2019–2023)

District-Level Patterns: What the 2023 Data Reveals
While national and state-wise registration is near complete, district-level patterns show strong variation. To understand which districts stood out in 2023, we compared each district’s share of registrations with what is typical for its own state using a simple statistical measure called a Z-score.

A Z-score tells us how far a district is from its state’s normal range:

This method makes comparisons fair because states have very different numbers of districts, and raw percentages alone can be misleading.

In 2023, several districts had very high Z-scores, especially large cities with major hospitals, but none fell below -2. The lowest Z-scores were around -1, which is still within the normal range for most states.

Births – Districts with Significantly Higher Registrations

Deaths – Districts with Significantly Higher Registrations

Why These Districts Stand Out
These districts tend to share similar features:

Urban districts act as registration magnets. People often travel to cities for deliveries or healthcare, inflating urban district numbers far beyond population shares.

Why Does It Matter?
The 2023 CRS data shows that India has achieved extremely high levels of birth and death registration. However, the district-level view highlights important structural patterns:

Understanding these patterns is critical for;
– Strengthening rural and district-level registration
– Improving access to registration services
– Ensuring that every birth and every death is accurately recorded

Key Numbers (from 2019 to 2023)