Why in the news
The Registrar-General of India released the Vital Statistics report built on the Civil Registration System for 2023, giving official numbers on births, deaths and sex ratio at birth.
Key facts
- Births: 2.52 crore in 2023; registration level 98.4%.
- Institutional births: 74.7% of registered births.
- Deaths: 86.6 lakh in 2023, barely above 2022.
- Deaths hit 102.2 lakh in 2021, up from 81.2 lakh in 2020, tied to the second COVID-19 wave.
- Bihar has recorded the lowest sex ratio at birth since 2020.
Sex ratio at birth (females per 1,000 males)
| Lowest | SRB | Highest | SRB |
|---|
| Jharkhand | 899 | Arunachal Pradesh | 1,085 |
| Bihar | 900 | Nagaland | 1,007 |
| Telangana | 906 | Goa | 973 |
| Maharashtra | 909 | Ladakh and Tripura | 972 |
| Gujarat | 910 | Kerala | 967 |
Timely registration (within 21 days)
| Band | States/UTs |
|---|
| Above 90% | 11 in all, among them Punjab, Haryana, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Puducherry and Chandigarh |
| 80-90% | Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Odisha |
| 50-80% | 14 in all, among them Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan and West Bengal |
Exam angle
- Publisher: Registrar-General of India.
- Lowest SRB: Jharkhand; highest: Arunachal Pradesh.