Registration of vital events commenced in 1867 with the enactment of civil registration laws which conferred the legal sanction for the registration of events namely, live births, deaths, still births and marriages. According to the law every live birth has to be registered within 42 days and death within 5 days from the date of occurrence.

Although birth and death registrations are compulsory by law, few events are missed and not registered for various reasons. The survey conducted in 1980, to assess the completeness of births and deaths registration found that, about 98.8 per cent of births and 94.0 per cent of deaths are being registered.

Births and deaths are registered at the place of occurrence and not in the area of residence of the mother (in case of birth) or the deceased (in case of death). But such information is gathered and tabulated.