Completeness of birth registration, female (%) - Country Ranking

Definition: Completeness of birth registration is the percentage of children under age 5 whose births were registered at the time of the survey. The numerator of completeness of birth registration includes children whose birth certificate was seen by the interviewer or whose mother or caretaker says the birth has been registered.

Source: UNICEF's State of the World's Children based mostly on household surveys and ministry of health data.

See also: Thematic map, Time series comparison

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Statistical Concept and Methodology: Health systems - the combined arrangements of institutions and actions whose primary purpose is to promote, restore, or maintain health (World Health Organization, World Health Report 2000) - are increasingly being recognized as key to combating disease and improving the health status of populations. The World Bank's Healthy Development: Strategy for Health, Nutrition, and Population Results emphasizes the need to strengthen health systems, which are weak in many countries, in order to increase the effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing specific diseases and further reduce morbidity and mortality. To evaluate health systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that key components - such as financing, service delivery, workforce, governance, and information - be monitored using several key indicators. The data are a subset of the key indicators. Monitoring health systems allows the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of different health system models to be compared. Health system data also help identify weaknesses and strengths and areas that need investment, such as additional health facilities, better health information systems, or better trained human resources. Numerous indicators have been proposed to assess a country's health information system.They can be grouped into two broad types: indicators related to data generation using core sources and methods (health surveys, civil registration, censuses, facility reporting, health system resource tracking) and indicators related to capacity for data synthesis, analysis, and validation. Indicators related to data generation reflect a country's capacity to collect relevant data at suitable intervals using the most appropriate data sources. Benchmarks include periodicity, timeliness, contents, and availability. Indicators related to capacity for synthesis, analysis, and validation measure the dimensions of the institutional frameworks needed to ensure data quality, including independence, transparency, and access. Benchmarks include the availability of independent coordination mechanisms and micro- and meta-data. Indicators related to data generation include completeness of birth registration. Birth registration refers to the permanent and official recording of a child's existence by some administrative levels of the State that is normally coordinated by a particular branch of the government. Completeness of birth registration indicator is related to the group of indictors of data generation.

Periodicity: Annual