Despite laggards UP, Bihar, death registration at 99.9%

The 2020 annual report of the Civil Registration System did not give data on the level of registration of deaths, but an analysis of the recently released sample registration system report for the year shows that the level of registration of deaths in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, which account for over a quarter of the country's population, was 58.7% and 64.6% respectively.

- Rema Nagarajan

Despite this, the national figure worked out to 99.9%. So how did the overall death registration level jump from 92% in 2019 to 99.9% in 2020 despite low levels of registration in several populous states? If anything, the registration level was expected to go down in a year when there was total lockdown and restrictions through parts of the year across the country. The answer lies in the huge jump in the level of registration in many states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh which had already achieved 100% death registration in 2019 itself.