A birth certificate serves as a legal proof of identity for children and is an important document for securing their recognition before the law and safeguarding their rights. Without a birth certificate, children may be unable to access basic services, such as routine vaccines and healthcare.
Birth certification (%)
The primary source for data on birth certification comes from nationally representative surveys. Research suggest that birth certification rates reported by survey respondents (typically the mother or other primary caregiver) may be higher that actual birth certification as respondents may confuse documents such as the birth notification form with a birth certificate.
The percentage of children under age 5 whose births were registered at the time of the survey and whose birth certificate was seen by the interviewer or whose mother or caretaker says that a birth certificate has been issued for the child.
The primary source for data on birth certification are nationally representative household surveys such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). The DHS and MICS employ slightly different question structures for this topic, but both ask a caregiver to report whether a child has been registered and whether a birth certificate was issued for that child. This creates three categories of response: “birth registered, with a certificate”, “birth registered, no certificate”, and “birth not registered”. The DHS combines all three outcomes as responses for one question, whereas the MICS question is multi-step and also probes further by asking the respondent to show the birth certificate if they can (in an attempt to mitigate for confusion with other documents).