CIVIL REGISTRATION AND VITAL STATISTICS
IN ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
Republic of Korea
- COUNTRY PROFILE
- GOALS
- Goal 1
- Goal 2
- Goal 3
- Implementation steps
- Events
- News
- Resources
- LIST OF COUNTRIES
Republic of Korea
The civil registration system in the Republic of Korea is divided in two parts: The Family Relationship Registration (FRR) and the Resident Registration (RR). The former is the oldest system, and registers family ties. The latter has been introduced more recently and keeps track of all individual events. The Supreme Court and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) respectively assume FRR and RR. The vital statistics system, which relies mostly on data from RR, is the responsibility of Statistics Korea (KOSTAT). Registration takes place in 226 city, county, and district offices (Si/Gun/Gu), and at 3,560 community service centers (Eup/Myeon/Dong). In 2004, Statistics Korea established a link amongst the family registration systems to produce vital statistics. Individual vital events are extracted from the family registries and then put in a single file. Then, the file is uploaded to the vital events system by each local administrative official. With the central database, Statistics Korea complies and edits the data to analyze and produce vital statistics. In addition to the civil registrations, Statistics Korea also incorporates other data such as death of infants from the hospitals, crematory data, police data from National Police Agency as well as data from health institutions to increase the accuracy of vital statistics and is planning to increase the use of administrative data to produce statistics on cause of death
The time limit for birth and death registration is 30 days and registration must be completed by relatives. An exception has been implemented, in the case of death caused by disasters, etc. and the death of a person with no relatives or interested persons ex officio, to give the Head of Si/Eup/Myeon the power to register the death.
CRVS Focal Point:
Mr. Sooyoung Kim, Deputy Director, Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea
RSG Member:
Mr. Sooyoung Kim, Deputy Director, Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea
Republic of Korea
Goal 1. Universal civil registration of births, deaths and other vital events |
Goal 1 Targets:
1.A
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of births in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are registered.
1.B
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of children under 5 years old in the territory and jurisdiction have had their birth registered.
1.C
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all individuals in the territory and jurisdiction have had their birth registered.
1.D
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths that take place in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are registered.
1.E
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths recorded by the health sector in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year have a medically certified cause of death recorded using the international form of the death certificate.
Goal 2. All individuals are provided with legal documentation of civil registration of births, deaths and other vital events, as necessary, to claim identity, civil status and ensuing rights |
Goal 2 Targets:
2.A
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all births registered in the territory and jurisdiction are accompanied with the issuance of an official birth certificate that includes, as a minimum, the individual’s name, sex, date and place of birth, and name of parent(s) where known.
2.B
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths registered in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are accompanied with the issuance of an official death certificate which includes, as a minimum, the deceased’s name, date of death, sex, and age.
Goal 3. Accurate, complete and timely vital statistics (including on causes of death) are produced based on registration records and are disseminated |
Goal 3 Targets:
3.A
By...(year), annual nationally representative statistics on births –disaggregated by age of mother, sex of child, geographic area and administrative subdivision –are produced from registration records or other valid administrative data sources.
3.B
By ...(year), annual nationally representative statistics on deaths –disaggregated by age, sex, cause of death defined by ICD, geographic area and administrative subdivision –are produced from registration records or other valid administrative data sources.
3.C
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of deaths occurring in health facilities or with the attention of a medical practitioner have an underlying cause of death code derived from the medical certificate according to the standards defined by ICD (latest version as appropriate)
3.D
By 2024, the proportion of deaths coded to ill-defined codes will have been reduced to 7 per cent.
3.E
By 2024, at least … per cent of deaths taking place outside of a health facility and without the attention of a medical practitioner have their underlying cause of death code determined through verbal autopsy in line with international standards.
3.F
By … (year), key summary tabulations of vital statistics on births and deaths using registration records as the primary source, are made available in the public domain in electronic format annually, and within one calendar year.
3.G
By … (year), key summary tabulations of vital statistics on causes of death using registration records as the primary source, are made available in the public domain in electronic format annually, and within two calendar years.
3.H
By … (year), an accurate, complete and timely vital statistics report for the previous two years, using registration records as the primary source, is made available in the public domain.
Goal 1. Universal civil registration of births, deaths and other vital events |
Goal 1 is an expression of the internationally accepted principle of the universal coverage of civil registration. The CRVS system should register all vital events occurring in the territory and jurisdiction of the country or area, including among hard-to-reach and marginalized populations.
National Targets:
1.A
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of births in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are registered.
BASELINE
2014100%
MIDTERM
2018100%
TARGET
2024100%
1.B
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of children under 5 years old in the territory and jurisdiction have had their birth registered.
Note: These figures are from an administrative source, and not from surveys like for most countries.
baseline
201399.7%
MIDTERM
201897.2%
TARGET
2024100%
1.C
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all individuals in the territory and jurisdiction have had their birth registered.
baseline
2013100%
MIDTERM
2018100%
TARGET
2024100%
1.D
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths that take place in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are registered.
baseline
2014100%
MIDTERM
2018100%
TARGET
2024100%
1.E
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths recorded by the health sector in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year have a medically certified cause of death recorded using the international form of the death certificate.
baseline
201499.1%
MIDTERM
201899.7%
TARGET
2024100%
Goal 2. All individuals are provided with legal documentation of civil registration of births, deaths and other vital events, as necessary, to claim identity, civil status and ensuing rights |
Goal 2 reflects that CRVS systems provide legal documentation of civil registration to individuals and families for legal and administrative purposes. Legal documentation is strongly linked with a broad range of rights and activities, in particular legal identity. This goal addresses the distinction between the civil registration of a vital event and the possession of formal proof that it took place, in the form of legal documentation.
National Targets:
2.A
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all births registered in the territory and jurisdiction are accompanied with the issuance of an official birth certificate that includes, as a minimum, the individual’s name, sex, date and place of birth, and name of parent(s) where known.
baseline
201398.7%
MIDTERM
201899.5%
TARGET
2024100%
2.B
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of all deaths registered in the territory and jurisdiction in the given year are accompanied with the issuance of an official death certificate which includes, as a minimum, the deceased’s name, date of death, sex, and age.
baseline
201398.8%
MIDTERM
201899.7%
TARGET
2024100%
Goal 3. Accurate, complete and timely vital statistics (including on causes of death) are produced based on registration records and are disseminated |
Goal 3 highlights the critical importance of civil registration being linked to the production and quality assurance of vital statistics on the occurrence and characteristics of vital events.
National Targets:
3.A
By...(year), annual nationally representative statistics on births –disaggregated by age of mother, sex of child, geographic area and administrative subdivision –are produced from registration records or other valid administrative data sources.
TARGET
Target achieved
3.B
By ...(year), annual nationally representative statistics on deaths –disaggregated by age, sex, cause of death defined by ICD, geographic area and administrative subdivision –are produced from registration records or other valid administrative data sources.
TARGET
Target achieved
3.C
By 2024, at least 100 per cent of deaths occurring in health facilities or with the attention of a medical practitioner have an underlying cause of death code derived from the medical certificate according to the standards defined by ICD (latest version as appropriate)
Note: This target was not monitored as part of the Midterm Questionnaire on the Implementation of the Regional Action Framework for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific.
baseline
201499.1%
TARGET
2024100%
3.D
By 2024, the proportion of deaths coded to ill-defined codes will have been reduced to 7 per cent.
baseline
201310.6%
MIDTERM
201811.3%
TARGET
20247%
3.E
By 2024, at least … per cent of deaths taking place outside of a health facility and without the attention of a medical practitioner have their underlying cause of death code determined through verbal autopsy in line with international standards.
Note: In light of recent countries’ experiences, Verbal autopsy is not encouraged to be applied to a large population scale, but rather on a representative sample. To reflect this, Target 3E is not anymore monitored by the coverage percentage of Verbal autopsy, but by the use or not of Verbal autopsy and its different applications.
MIDTERM
No
3.F
By … (year), key summary tabulations of vital statistics on births and deaths using registration records as the primary source, are made available in the public domain in electronic format annually, and within one calendar year.
TARGET
Target achieved
3.G
By … (year), key summary tabulations of vital statistics on causes of death using registration records as the primary source, are made available in the public domain in electronic format annually, and within two calendar years.
TARGET
Target achieved
3.H
By … (year), an accurate, complete and timely vital statistics report for the previous two years, using registration records as the primary source, is made available in the public domain.
TARGET
Target achieved
Republic of Korea
National Coordination Mechanism
Status in Republic of Korea: Not started
Comprehensive Assessment
Status in Republic of Korea: Not started
National Targets for 2024
Status in Republic of Korea: Complete
Monitoring & Reporting Plan
Status in Republic of Korea: Not started
Inequality Assessment
Status in Republic of Korea: Not started
National Strategy
Status in Republic of Korea: Not started
National Focal Point
Status in Republic of Korea: Complete
Reporting to ESCAP - Baseline
Status in Republic of Korea: Complete
Reporting to ESCAP - Midterm
Status in Republic of Korea: Complete
Republic of Korea Events
09 December 2015 - 10 December 2015
The workshop for National CRVS Focal Points is aimed at strengthening capacities for setting national targets and collecting, compiling and…
13 November 2018 - 15 November 2018
The Regional Steering Group is responsible for providing regional oversight and guidance for the implementation of the Regional Action Framework on…
Republic of Korea News
09 April 2021
The Center of Excellence has recently published a compendium of good practices on Harnessing Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) in…
10 September 2020
The Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data and the Centre of Excellence for CRVS Systems at IDRC are organizing a webinar this Thursday…
20 August 2020
The Centre of Excellence for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems has recently launched a compendium on the links between CRVS and social…
10 July 2018
In collaboration with the Korea Ministry of Strategy and Finance, The World Bank, on behalf of the Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics…
24 May 2017
The Global Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Group and the World Bank Group Open Learning Campus, in partnership with the Korea…
03 April 2017
Do you want to know how many countries in Asia and the Pacific have a CRVS coordination mechanism? Are you interested in how ambitious the national…
29 April 2016
Here you can find recent news, events and blogs relevant for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific.
Subscribe for more ! To receive regular updates on the…
Republic of Korea Resources
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2015
The study of Korea’s economic and social transformation offers a unique window of opportunity to better understand the factors that drive development…
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2020
Training and Tools, 2020
This resource provides a full list of members for the Regional Steering Group for CRVS in Asia and the Pacific. The list includes members for both…
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2016
Those who have chosen a place of residence, different from the permanent residence, to stay longer than 90 days in such place, are required to…
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2016
Establishes the Family Relations Register, issues individual certificates such as Basic Certificate, Marriage Certificate, and Family Certificate.…
Presentations, 2017
Korea's country presentation made at the Technical Seminar on Legal Framework for Civil Registration, Vital Statistics and Identity Management…
Advocacy Materials, 2017
Civil Registration and Vital Statistics play a key role in facilitating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. A well-functioning CRVS…
Mass Media, Blogs and Social Media, 2017
The resident registration system of Korea has been digitalised since 1994. The system enables people to process their requests and all related…
Newsletters, 2017
Articles
Getting Every One in the Picture- What is 'universal registration' ?
Who is your national CRVS focal point?
Trial of data sharing in…
Advocacy Materials, Country Assessments and Strategies, 2017
Do you want to know how many countries in Asia and the Pacific have a CRVS coordination mechanism? Are you interested in how ambitious the national…
Country Assessments and Strategies, Presentations, 2015
Republic of Korea's country presentation made at the 1st Regional Steering Group for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) Meeting, Bangkok…
Meeting Documents, UN Official Documents, 2016
The seventy-first session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific adopted resolution 71/14 on the Asian and Pacific Civil…
International Standards and Recommendations, UN Official Documents, 2014
Through Commission resolution 69/15, countries in Asia and the Pacific requested that further regional action be taken to support the improvement of…
Country Statements, 2014
The Republic of Korea issued this statement in the Ministerial Conference agenda item 6 regarding the State of civil registration and vital…
Country Statements, 2014
Country statement delivered during the Ministerial Conference under agenda item 4 - Implementation of the Regional Action Framework on CRVS in Asia…
Meeting Documents, 2014
Advocacy Materials, Meeting Documents, 2014
The Ministerial Declaration to "Get every one in the picture' in Asia and the Pacific was made at the Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration…
Meeting Documents, Report, UN Official Documents, 2014
The Report of the Ministerial Conference on Civil Registration and Vital Statistics in Asia and the Pacific gives an overview of the main outcomes of…
Republic of Korea
The civil registration system in the Republic of Korea is divided in two parts: The Family Relationship Registration (FRR) and the Resident Registration (RR). The former is the oldest system, and registers family ties. The latter has been introduced more recently and keeps track of all individual events. The Supreme Court and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) respectively assume FRR and RR. The vital statistics system, which relies mostly on data from RR, is the responsibility of Statistics Korea (KOSTAT). Registration takes place in 226 city, county, and district offices (Si/Gun/Gu), and at 3,560 community service centers (Eup/Myeon/Dong). In 2004, Statistics Korea established a link amongst the family registration systems to produce vital statistics. Individual vital events are extracted from the family registries and then put in a single file. Then, the file is uploaded to the vital events system by each local administrative official. With the central database, Statistics Korea complies and edits the data to analyze and produce vital statistics. In addition to the civil registrations, Statistics Korea also incorporates other data such as death of infants from the hospitals, crematory data, police data from National Police Agency as well as data from health institutions to increase the accuracy of vital statistics and is planning to increase the use of administrative data to produce statistics on cause of death
The time limit for birth and death registration is 30 days and registration must be completed by relatives. An exception has been implemented, in the case of death caused by disasters, etc. and the death of a person with no relatives or interested persons ex officio, to give the Head of Si/Eup/Myeon the power to register the death.
CRVS Focal Point:
Mr. Sooyoung Kim, Deputy Director, Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea
RSG Member:
Mr. Sooyoung Kim, Deputy Director, Vital Statistics Division, Statistics Korea
Events
Dec 09-10 2015
Nov 13-15 2018
News
Apr 9 2021
Resources
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2015
Country Assessments and Strategies, 2020
Training and Tools, 2020