Fastest global increase in birth registration rates in South Asia - UNICEF
New UNICEF report also shows that 42 million children under age five are still without legal identities in South Asia

NEW DELHI, 11 December 2024 — Over the last two decades, South Asia has seen the fastest increase in birth registration rates among all regions, soaring from 39 per cent in 2008 to 76 per cent in 2024, according to a new UNICEF report released today.
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh have made significant strides in securing legal identities for millions of children, as per the report, The Right Start in Life: Global levels and trends in birth registration, 2024 update. Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have near 100 per cent coverage. Prioritizing timely registration; using health, social protection, and education systems to register babies; expanding services to more locations; digitizing the process; and eliminating fees are some of the reasons for the progress. Released on UNICEF’s 78th birthday, the report is the latest update on the number of children registered since 2019.
“A birth certificate is the foundation for legal identity. But it’s so much more than a document. It protects children’s rights and enables them to access essential services like healthcare, education and other social services,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia. “Today, as UNICEF marks 78 years of championing children’s rights, we celebrate the millions of children who now have their right to a legal identity and a lifetime of promise and possibility.”
Over 42 million children under age five are still not registered and remain ‘invisible’ in South Asia. This means they are deprived of their right to legal identity and social services. According to the report, one-fourth of the total number of unregistered children under five globally lives in South Asia.
To achieve universal birth registration by 2030, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in particular, must accelerate their efforts. Bangladesh, which has made significant increases over the past decade, needs to scale up birth registration. India has also made remarkable progress over the last ten years, and a ‘celebrating the last-mile' strategy would enable the country to reach universal birth registration by 2030.
Countries can recommit to scale up birth registration across South Asia, ahead of the ‘Third Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in Asia and the Pacific' in June 2025.
UNICEF is calling for every child to be registered at birth; for the registration process to be streamlined; and for health, social protection and education programmes to be used in scaling up birth registration.
“To uphold our commitment to leave no child behind, we must prioritize birth registration to protect children and give them the best start in life,” said Wijesekera. “UNICEF calls on leaders across South Asia to accelerate efforts so that every child in the region is registered at birth. It’s the right thing to do.”
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Notes to editors:
Article 7 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states affirms every child's right to have their identity established ‘immediately’ after birth through birth registration. Find out more here.
Estimates are based on comparable data collected between 2014 and 2023 for a subset of 173 countries, representing 98 per cent of the global population of children under age 5. The latest available data for around 80 per cent of these countries are from the last five years. Data sources include nationally representative household surveys such as the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), vital statistics from civil registration systems, censuses and other nationally representative surveys that use a comparable methodology.
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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. Across more than 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, to build a better world for everyone.
UNICEF’s Regional Office for South Asia (ROSA) works with UNICEF Country Offices in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to help to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfil their potential. For more information about UNICEF’s work for children in South Asia, visit www.unicef.org/rosa and follow UNICEF ROSA on Twitter and Facebook.