For the first time, the unregistered birth rate is below 1% in Brazil
In 2024, the estimated rate of under-registration of live births in Brazil was 0.95%, falling below 1% for the first time. This is a reduction of 3.26 percentage points compared to the beginning of the historical series, in 2015 (4.21%). The data comes from the Estimates of Under-Registration of Births and Deaths, released today (20) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
With this result, the country is closer to the goal of universal birth registration coverage, as recommended by the UN. "This evolution indicates significant advances in the coverage of the Civil Registry Statistics system", comments José Eduardo Trindade, analyst at IBGE's Population and Social Indicators Coordination (Copis).
In Brazil, there are two main agents that collect birth and death statistics information in a complementary way: the IBGE, through the Civil Registry Statistics system, based on data collected from registry offices, and the Ministry of Health, through the Live Birth Information (Sinasc) and Mortality Information (SIM) systems, fed by notifications in health establishments and medical services.
The estimated rate of underreporting in Sinasc was 0.39%, with a reduction of 1.62 percentage points since 2015 (when it was 2.01%).
Jailson Assis, also an analyst at Copis, from IBGE, highlights the importance of data for citizenship: "In the case of live births, civil registration guarantees the child's rights to protection, access to school, health and social programs". On the other hand, under-registration and under-reporting reveal barriers: the under-registration rate of 0.95% represents approximately 22,902 children without a legal identity, with direct implications for access to essential basic services.
Other highlights
- The highest percentage of under-registration was found in the North and Northeast regions, with emphasis on Roraima (13.86%), Amapá (5.84%), Amazonas (4.40%), Piauí (3.98%) and Sergipe (3.10%). In contrast, the lowest rates were recorded in Paraná (0.12%), Distrito Federal (0.13%), São Paulo (0.15%), Rio Grande do Sul (0.21%) and Minas Gerais (0.23%).
- In 2015, it was estimated that 3.94% of births occurring in hospitals were not registered with a registry office; in 2024, this percentage fell to 0.83%.
- Live births to mothers under 15 years of age had the highest percentage of under-registration (6.10%) compared to other ages. This percentage reduces with increasing age and reaches its lowest value between 35 and 39 years old (0.63%).
Source: Antena 1