Children who received a birth certificate — share of under-5 population (%)
Share of children under age 5 whose births are certified with a birth certificate (or recorded in a civil register), by country (latest 2019–2024).
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Key Insights
- •Birth certification is near-universal (≈100%) in many high-income and upper-middle-income countries, but remains very low in several conflict-affected or low-capacity settings.
- •The gap between countries can exceed 90 percentage points, highlighting major inequalities in legal identity access.
- •Because this is measured via household surveys, it captures real-world documentation outcomes—not just system capacity reported by governments.
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 84.5%)
About This Statistic
This statistic measures the percentage of children under age 5 whose birth is officially documented—typically via a birth certificate or confirmation that the birth is registered with a civil authority. Birth certification is a practical indicator of legal identity: it can affect access to schooling, health services, social protection, inheritance rights, and protection from child marriage or trafficking.
Data are commonly derived from nationally representative household surveys (e.g., DHS, MICS) asking caregivers whether the child’s birth was registered and/or whether the child has a birth certificate, with definitions varying slightly by survey instrument and country. Coverage can be near-universal in many countries while remaining substantially lower in others, making it a revealing—often overlooked—window into administrative reach and equity.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bulgaria | 100.0% |
| 2 | Belarus | 100.0% |
| 3 | Canada | 100.0% |
| 4 | People's Republic of China | 100.0% |
| 5 | Costa Rica | 100.0% |
| 6 | Cyprus | 100.0% |
| 7 | Czech Republic | 100.0% |
| 8 | Benin | 100.0% |
| 9 | Denmark | 100.0% |
| 10 | Estonia | 100.0% |
| 11 | Finland | 100.0% |
| 12 | France | 100.0% |
| 13 | Georgia | 100.0% |
| 14 | Germany | 100.0% |
| 15 | Greece | 100.0% |
| 16 | Hungary | 100.0% |
| 17 | Iceland | 100.0% |
| 18 | Ireland | 100.0% |
| 19 | Israel | 100.0% |
| 20 | Italy | 100.0% |
| 21 | Japan | 100.0% |
| 22 | South Korea | 100.0% |
| 23 | Kuwait | 100.0% |
| 24 | Latvia | 100.0% |
| 25 | Lithuania | 100.0% |
| 26 | Luxembourg | 100.0% |
| 27 | Mauritius | 100.0% |
| 28 | Oman | 100.0% |
| 29 | Netherlands | 100.0% |
| 30 | New Zealand | 100.0% |
| 31 | Norway | 100.0% |
| 32 | Poland | 100.0% |
| 33 | Portugal | 100.0% |
| 34 | Russian Federation | 100.0% |
| 35 | Saudi Arabia | 100.0% |
| 36 | Singapore | 100.0% |
| 37 | Slovakia | 100.0% |
| 38 | Slovenia | 100.0% |
| 39 | Spain | 100.0% |
| 40 | Sweden | 100.0% |
| 41 | Switzerland | 100.0% |
| 42 | Thailand | 100.0% |
| 43 | United Arab Emirates | 100.0% |
| 44 | Tunisia | 100.0% |
| 45 | Türkiye | 100.0% |
| 46 | Ukraine | 100.0% |
| 47 | United Kingdom | 100.0% |
| 48 | United States of America | 100.0% |
| 49 | Uruguay | 100.0% |
| 50 | Uzbekistan | 100.0% |
| 51 | Algeria | 100.0% |
| 52 | Argentina | 100.0% |
| 53 | Australia | 100.0% |
| 54 | Belgium | 100.0% |
| 55 | Botswana | 100.0% |
| 56 | Brazil | 100.0% |
| 57 | Solomon Islands | 100.0% |
| 58 | Chile | 99.0% |
| 59 | Croatia | 99.0% |
| 60 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 99.0% |
| 61 | Kazakhstan | 99.0% |
| 62 | Jordan | 99.0% |
| 63 | Lebanon | 99.0% |
| 64 | Malaysia | 99.0% |
| 65 | Mongolia | 99.0% |
| 66 | Morocco | 99.0% |
| 67 | Panama | 99.0% |
| 68 | Romania | 99.0% |
| 69 | Serbia | 99.0% |
| 70 | The Republic of North Macedonia | 99.0% |
| 71 | Egypt | 99.0% |
| 72 | Afghanistan | 99.0% |
| 73 | Albania | 99.0% |
| 74 | Austria | 99.0% |
| 75 | Armenia | 99.0% |
| 76 | Sri Lanka | 98.0% |
| 77 | Guatemala | 98.0% |
| 78 | Kyrgyzstan | 98.0% |
| 79 | Paraguay | 98.0% |
| 80 | Belize | 98.0% |
| 81 | Ecuador | 97.0% |
| 82 | Moldova, Republic of | 97.0% |
| 83 | Vietnam | 97.0% |
| 84 | Brunei Darussalam | 97.0% |
| 85 | El Salvador | 95.0% |
| 86 | Mexico | 95.0% |
| 87 | Peru | 95.0% |
| 88 | Venezuela | 95.0% |
| 89 | Honduras | 94.0% |
| 90 | Bangladesh | 94.0% |
| 91 | Colombia | 93.0% |
| 92 | Dominican Republic | 92.0% |
| 93 | Indonesia | 92.0% |
| 94 | Iraq | 92.0% |
| 95 | Nicaragua | 90.0% |
| 96 | Bolivia | 89.0% |
| 97 | South Africa | 88.0% |
| 98 | Madagascar | 87.0% |
| 99 | Philippines | 86.0% |
| 100 | Angola | 86.0% |
| 101 | Haiti | 84.0% |
| 102 | Mali | 81.0% |
| 103 | Republic of The Gambia | 80.0% |
| 104 | India | 80.0% |
| 105 | Togo | 78.0% |
| 106 | Cambodia | 77.0% |
| 107 | Nepal | 77.0% |
| 108 | Senegal | 77.0% |
| 109 | Republic of the Congo | 76.0% |
| 110 | Cote d'Ivoire | 75.0% |
| 111 | Zimbabwe | 74.0% |
| 112 | Pakistan | 73.0% |
| 113 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 73.0% |
| 114 | Burkina Faso | 71.0% |
| 115 | Timor-Leste | 70.0% |
| 116 | Rwanda | 69.0% |
| 117 | Ghana | 68.0% |
| 118 | Mauritania | 67.0% |
| 119 | Kenya | 65.0% |
| 120 | Mozambique | 62.0% |
| 121 | Cameroon | 61.0% |
| 122 | Nigeria | 57.0% |
| 123 | Myanmar | 55.0% |
| 124 | Papua New Guinea | 52.0% |
| 125 | Guinea | 45.0% |
| 126 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 42.0% |
| 127 | Lesotho | 41.0% |
| 128 | Chad | 35.0% |
| 129 | Sudan | 31.0% |
| 130 | Uganda | 30.0% |
| 131 | Central African Republic | 29.0% |
| 132 | United Republic of Tanzania | 26.0% |
| 133 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 25.0% |
| 134 | Sierra Leone | 22.0% |
| 135 | Burundi | 19.0% |
| 136 | Yemen | 17.0% |
| 137 | Zambia | 11.0% |
| 138 | Malawi | 9.0% |
| 139 | Ethiopia | 7.0% |
| 140 | Eritrea | 4.0% |
| 141 | Somalia | 2.0% |
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from UNICEF (Child protection – Birth registration), via UNICEF Data (2022).
View Original Source