Vital statistics and their sources

Workshop on the Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in the SADC Region, Blantyre, Malawi, 1 – 5 December 2008

Vital statistics and their sources


Presentation plan1. Sources of vital

statistics and their pros and cons- Civil registration- Population censuses- Sample surveys

2. Countries’ data sources – a summary of pre-workshop assignments

3. Taking advantage of the 2010 round of population and housing censuses


Civil registration system

Continuous, permanent, compulsory, universal

recording

of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events in accordance with the legal requirements in each country


Population Censuses The total process of collecting,

compiling, evaluating, analyzing and publishing or otherwise disseminating demographic, economic and social data pertaining, at a specified time, to all persons in a country.


Sample surveys Household sample surveys collect

information for relatively small but scientifically designed samples of the households.


Pros and cons of the three sources of fertility and mortality data (on the scale of High (H), Medium (M) and Low (L))

Dimension Census Survey Civil Reg.

Cost H M LRapidity of processing L H M-HDetailed socio-demographic information

M-H H L

Continuity L M HRecency of estimates L M HInformation on causes of death

L M H


Pros and cons of the three sources of fertility and mortality data (on the scale of High (H), Medium (M) and Low (L)) (cont’d)

Dimension Census Survey Civil Reg.Small area statistics H L HAffected by age misreporting

M M L

Availability of time series L M HPresence of sampling errors

L H L

Need for assumptions and models for converting responses into vital rates

M M L

Geographical detail H L H


Civil registration is the best source for vital statistics

Data from civil registration: Providing data continuously Providing more accurate information on

cause of deaths Data from census and surveys:

Infrequent (for censuses) Sampling errors (for surveys)


Results of the questionnaireData sources Most countries in SADC region relies solely

on censuses and sample surveys for vital statistics

Some countries use incomplete data from civil registration, in combination with other sources

One country has complete civil registration system: Mauritius


Issues related to civil registration systems: low-coverage Civil registration system not compulsory

Malawi Not a tradition to register vital events, especially in rural

areas Birth registration as low as 10% for Zambia in rural

areas Difficult to access areas:

Remote Area Dwellers (RADs) in Botswana do not have access to facilities where they could register these events

Non-conformance of regulations Ignorance of the procedures, delayed registration of birth

until school age (Mozambique)


Issues related to civil registration systems: Under-exploitation of the existing data Lack of cooperation between civil registration and statistics

offices In South Africa, the exchange between civil registration and

statistics office was stalled for seven years, as the civil registration authorities stopped providing data to Statistics South Africa

lack of cooperation between government institutions leading to for example delays in disbursement of funds (Swaziland)

Difficult format for statistics office to process

In South Africa and Swaziland, civil registration records are in mainframe format, requires developing sets of applications.

Sometimes civil registration data are available only in hard copy, requires coding, data entry, editing, tabulating (Malawi)

Lack of skill required on the compilation of vital statistics Tanzania Zimbabwe


Issues related to civil registration systems: lack of monitoring and evaluation tools

Very few countries in the region evaluate their registration system


Goals of the workshop…In light of this introduction the discussion

in the next five days will focus on:

Introduce the United Nations guidelines for the collection and compilation of vital statistics

Assess the current status of civil registration and vital statistics system in the country


… Goals of the workshop Identify gaps and propose strategies for the

improvement of civil registration

Identify good practices that countries might follow (a) to collect data, (b) to calculate vital statistics, (c) to evaluate their quality

Examine the availability of data that countries are able to provide to UNSD through the Demographic Yearbook data collection and look for ways for further improvement.


2010 World Census Programme – for fertility and mortality statistics

Principles and Recommendations for Population and Housing Censuses, Rev. 2, published in 2008


2010 World Census Programme – recommendations for the collection of fertility and mortality statistics

6 core topics on fertility and mortality Children ever born Children Living Date of birth of last child born alive Births in the past 12 months Deaths among children born in the last

12 months Deaths in the household in the last 12

months


2010 World Census Programme – recommendations for the collection of fertility and mortality statistics (cont.)

Additional topics Age, date and duration of first marriage Age of mother at birth of first child born

alive Maternal and paternal orphanhood


2010 World Census Programme - how did we do in the 2000 round? (Core topics)

Country, year of census

Children ever born alive

Children living

Date of birth of

last child born alive

Births in the past

12 months

Deaths among

children born in the last 12

months

Household deaths in

the past 12 months

Botswana, 2001 X X X X XLesotho, 1996 X X X XMalawi, 1998 X X X X XMauritius, 2000 XMozambique, 1997 X X X XNamibia, 2001 X X X XSouth Africa, 1996 X X XSouth Africa, 2001 X X X XSwaziland, 1997 X X XUnited Republic of Tanzania, 2002 X X X XZambia, 2000 X X X XZimbabwe, 2002 X X X X


2010 World Census Programme - how did we do in the 2000 round? (Additional topics)

Country, year of census

Maternal or paternal

orphanhood

Age of mother at birth of first

child born alive

Age, date or duration of first

marriageBotswana, 2001 XLesotho, 1996 XMalawi, 1998 XMauritius, 2000 XMozambique, 1997 XNamibia, 2001 X XSouth Africa, 1996 X XSouth Africa, 2001 XSwaziland, 1997 XUnited Republic of Tanzania,

2002 XZambia, 2000Zimbabwe, 2002 X X


2010 World Census Programme - how did we do in the 2000 round?

• Angola, DRC and Madagascar did not conduct census in the 2000 round

• For others, coverage of fertility and mortality questions are good

• Are those information used to • Estimate fertility and mortality level?• Evaluate birth and death registration in

the country?


2010 census round - recommendations

Take advantage of the 2010 census round to capture fertility and mortality information

Ask the right question AND compile the data

Use the census data to evaluate the civil registration system in the country


THANK YOU!

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Vital statistics and their sources

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