An Expert Explains: More births, deaths being recorded: Benefits, gaps

Birth and death registration branch office of Sarkari Swastha Kendra in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. (File Photo)

6 min readJul 14, 2026 07:12 AM IST

First published on: Jul 14, 2026 at 06:53 AM IST

India officially recorded more than 99% of its estimated births and deaths in 2024, according to the latest official data released earlier this month. This marks a significant increase in coverage in around a decade.

Data on births, deaths and stillbirths are recorded under a continuous and compulsory mechanism known as the Civil Registration System (CRS). It serves as a foundational source of India’s population data — how many people are being born, how many are dying, where these events are occurring, and so on — for the accurate estimation of mortality, fertility and sex ratio at birth.