More than 99% of births and deaths registered in 2024: report

India, with its age-old problem of son preference, has historically struggled to balance the sex ratio at birth. File. | Photo credit: Thulasi Kakkat

latest Indian registration details, CRS 2024released on Wednesday (July 1, 2026) suggests that registration is improving across the country and that the sex ratio at birth is improving in some places, but progress can be expected to remain uneven across states and union territories. India’s sex ratio at birth is 917 females per 1,000 males, which means 917 girls are born for every 1,000 boys.

While there is no surprise in Kerala’s strong performance (970 females per 1,000 males) in terms of sex ratio at birth, other states such as Arunachal Pradesh (1,050), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (984), Meghalaya (974) and Mizoram (972) are also top performers. Nagaland (865), Lakshadweep (865) and Jharkhand (890) have the weakest numbers.

A sex ratio at birth that is close to or slightly above the biological norm is an indicator that the birth rate is not significantly skewed by selective abortion/sex termination. India, with its age-old problem of son preference, has historically struggled to balance the sex ratio at birth. Male gender at birth has long dominated the headlines in several parts of the country. Haryana and Punjab recorded the lowest child sex ratio at birth. In the 2011 census, Haryana recorded 834 girls for every 1,000 boys, closely followed by Punjab with 846. The battle to correct the deviation has been long and hard politically.

The number of stillbirths in 2024 was recorded as 81,117 with a significant urban bias, with 69% of stillbirths occurring in urban centres.

The civil registration system continued to expand its coverage, and improving registration will offer a clearer picture of the country’s demographic transition. Registered births increased from 252.1 million in 2023 to 254.7 million in 2024, while registered deaths increased from 86.6 million to 89.4 million. 13 states recorded more than 90% of births and 15 states recorded more than 90% of deaths. The CRS report shows that the birth registration level reached 99.1% in 2024 and the death registration level reached 99.4%, both extremely close to full coverage.

An increase in registrations does not necessarily mean that the birth rate or death rate increases sharply; this means that the system has begun to more comprehensively capture births, deaths, stillbirths and the sex ratio at birth, moving closer to a situation where more reliable data will be available to guide policy and implementation.

While registration of births and deaths is mandatory in India under the provisions of the Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, compliance has been challenging in many states. The reporting and application forms were comprehensively revised and simplified in December 2006 to make the forms more user-friendly and to remove redundant data.

Published – 01 Jul 2026 21:59 IST