India’s 2023 Vital Statistics Report

News: Recently, India’s 2023 Vital Statistics Report was published by the Office of the Registrar General of India (ORGI), which works under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

About India’s 2023 Vital Statistics Report

• The Vital Statistics of India based on Civil Registration System (CRS) 2023 provides a nationwide picture of the country’s birth and death registrations, institutional births, and sex ratio at birth.
• Released by: Registrar General of India (RGI) under the Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner.
• Legal Context: The Civil Registration System (CRS) operates under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, mandating compulsory registration of every birth and death in India.
  • The recently proposed amendments to the Registration of Births and Deaths Act (effective from 2024) further emphasize digitization and integration of CRS data with other national databases to enhance real-time demographic tracking.

Findings of the report

Birth Statistics	Total Births Registered (2023): 2.52 crore (25.2 million) Comparison with 2022: Decline of 2.32 lakh births (2022 recorded approximately 2.54 crore births). Registration Coverage: 98.4% of births were registered in 2023. Institutional Births: Accounted for 74.7% of all registered births, indicating a continued trend toward hospital deliveries, though data from Sikkim was not included.
State-wise Registration Efficiency	11 States/UTs achieved more than 90% registration within 21 days of birth. Five States reported 80–90% timely registration Fourteen States showed 50–80% registration within the prescribed time.
Death Statistics	Total Deaths Registered (2023): 8.66 million (86.6 lakh) 2022 Figures: 8.65 million (86.5 lakh), a marginal increase of 0.1 lakh deaths, suggesting a relatively stable mortality rate post-pandemic. Pandemic Context: The CRS data shows no significant spike in deaths during 2022 and 2023, contrasting with earlier pandemic years. This demonstrates that the impact of COVID-19 on overall mortality had largely stabilized by 2023.
Sex Ratio at Birth	Lowest SRB States: Jharkhand has the lowest SRB. Other states with lowest SRB states: Bihar, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Mizoram. Notably, Bihar has consistently reported the lowest SRB since 2020. Highest SRB States: Arunachal Pradesh has the highest SRB. Other states with lowest SRB are Nagaland, Goa, Ladakh and Tripura and Kerala.
Institutional Births and Health Infrastructure	Institutional births accounted for 74.7% of total registered births in 2023. However, the remaining 25.3% non-institutional births suggest continued gaps in healthcare accessibility, particularly in rural and marginalized regions.