Civil registration systems and vital statistics, successes and missed opportunities. Who Counts

Vital statistics derived from civil registration systems are global public goods that governments of developing countries and development partners need for generation of comprehensive and detailed health outcome data, which are a key component of building the evidence base for health improvement • Worldwide civil registration systems have largely stagnated, during the past five decades, in terms of their vital statistics potential • Systematic evaluation studies and comprehensive assessments of the state of civil registration systems in various countries and regions of the world are rarely done, but they are essential to guide the use of vital statistics • Various international efforts and programmes have succeeded in setting standards for comparability and publications for easier access, but such efforts have been largely unsuccessful in the development of civil registration systems for vital statistics at a national level