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Civil registration is the system by which a
government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
records the
vital event Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...
s ( births,
marriages Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
, and deaths) of its
citizen Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
s and residents. The resulting repository or
database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...
has different names in different countries and even in different
US state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
s. It can be called a civil registry, civil register (but this is also an official term for an individual file of a vital event), vital records, and other terms, and the office responsible for receiving the registrations can be called a bureau of vital statistics, registry of vital records and statistics, registrar, registry, register, registry office (officially register office), or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create a legal
document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
(usually called a ''certificate'') that can be used to establish and protect the
rights Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory ...
of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of vital statistics. The
United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
in 1979 adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Article 16 of which requires countries to establish compulsory civil registration of marriages. Most countries have a legal requirement for relevant authority to be notified of certain life events, such as births, marriages and deaths. The first country to establish a nationwide population register was
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1539, using the registers of the
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
.
Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
followed in 1631, on the basis of a register drawn up by the
Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...
on behalf of the Swedish king. The
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
defines civil registration as "the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through
decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used ...
or
regulation Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. ...
in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents required by law. These records are also a main source of vital statistics. Complete coverage, accuracy and timeliness of civil registration are essential to ensure the quality of vital statistics." Vital events that are typically recorded on the register include live
birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...
,
death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
, foetal death,
name A name is a term used for identification by an external observer. They can identify a class or category of things, or a single thing, either uniquely, or within a given context. The entity identified by a name is called its referent. A persona ...
,
change of name Name change is the legal act by a person of adopting a new name different from their current name. The procedures and ease of a name change vary between jurisdictions. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose procedures for a name chan ...
,
marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
,
divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving th ...
, annulment of marriage, judicial separation of marriage,
adoption Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person's biological or legal parent or parents. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all rights and responsibilities, along with filiation, fro ...
, legitimization and recognition. Among the legal documents that are derived from civil registration are
birth certificate A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensui ...
s,
death certificate A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...
s, and
marriage certificate A marriage certificate (sometimes: marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage. In so ...
s. A family register is a type of civil register which is more concerned with events within the
family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
unit and is common in Continental European and Asian countries, such as Germany ('), France, Spain, China (''
Hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' lit ...
''), Japan ('' Koseki''), and
North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...
and
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
('' Hoju''). Additionally, in some countries,
immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...
,
emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanent ...
, and any change of residence may require notification. A register of residents is a type of civil register primarily concerned with the current residence.


Challenges

Civil registration is faced with many challenges, both on the demand side and supply side, especially in low-income countries. The demand-side challenges include a lack of awareness of the need for and importance of registration of vital events, and the situation is not helped by the many existing barriers to registration. For example, in 2009, the ''World Health Statistics Quarterly'' of the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...
estimated that only about 1% of the estimated deaths in low-income groups are reported and just about 9% in lower-middle-income groups. The registration systems in many cases are very difficult, causing potential barriers to accessing the registration. Furthermore, in certain societies, due to stigmatisation based on cultural and religious settings, single mothers may fear questions of paternity during notification through chief or community agents. On the supply side, challenges often involve different, and often conflicting, legal frameworks various stakeholders (health institution, civil registry, statistics agency), and as a result, many countries with "burdensome procedures and non-standardized systems across a country, leading to confusion regarding what individuals need to do or present." Other challenges include accessibility of remote areas and also irregular migration caused by civil conflicts and porous borders.


Innovations

There have been new developments in civil registration across the globe over the years. With the advent of enhanced and information and communication technology, civil registration has been moving from a paper-intensive, manual-based civil registration to more automated and digitalised systems. Some of the innovations implemented in civil registration include the use of e-birth notification systems, whereby the health officials are able to notify the national population registration system with new births. This system improves registration process by timely feeding the system with information as soon as a birth occurs. Another innovation, such as that implemented by iCivil Africa in
Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana t ...
, is the use of a mobile application to register newborns.


Family register

A family register is a civil registry used in many countries to track information of a
genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...
or family-centric legal interest. Other terms are household register and family album. The system is called ''
hojeok ''Hoju'' is a family register system in North Korea and formerly in South Korea. ''Hoju'' () means the "head of the family" or "head of the household", ''Hojuje'' () is the "head of the family" system, and ''Hojeok'' (; McCune–Reischauer roman ...
'' in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and '' koseki'' in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
, '' Familienbuch'' in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, ''
hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' lit ...
'' in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, '' hộ khẩu'' in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...
and (formerly) '' propiska'' in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
. Often, official recognition of certain events or status may be granted only when such event or status is registered in the family registry—for example, in Japan, a marriage is legally effective when and only when such filing is recorded into the household register (known as a ''koseki''). In other cases, the family register serves as a centralized repository for family legal events, such as births, deaths, marriages, and expatriations, as with the '' familienbuch'' in use in Germany and the ' in France, although it is not the sole source of official recognition for such events. Use of government-sanctioned or administered family registers, while common in many European nations and in countries which use continental-style civil law (where the family or household is legally viewed as the fundamental unit of a nation), is nonetheless rare in English-speaking countries (for example, the closest equivalent in the United Kingdom is the
electoral roll An electoral roll (variously called an electoral register, voters roll, poll book or other description) is a compilation that lists persons who are entitled to vote for particular elections in a particular jurisdiction. The list is usually broke ...
, which is organised by address, but it is limited in the amount of information recorded). Although the United States for example assigns most citizens and residents a
Social Security number In the United States, a Social Security number (SSN) is a nine-digit number issued to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, and temporary (working) residents under section 205(c)(2) of the Social Security Act, codified as . The number is issued to ...
intended to be unique to the recipient and information regarding birth, death and work history (in the form of contributions to the Social Security system) is collected, the U.S. Social Security Administration has long been intentionally restricted in the scope of information collected and maintained regarding individuals where not directly related to Social Security benefits—as such, no information is centrally collected regarding marriage, citizenship status, parentage, or the like, in contrast to the German and Japanese family register systems. Establishment of a more comprehensive personal information repository (along the lines of the Japanese or former German systems) has been criticized by
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties ma ...
advocates as subject to governmental or criminal abuse, while proponents cite the benefits of simplified access to vital information. In South Korea, use of the ''
hojeok ''Hoju'' is a family register system in North Korea and formerly in South Korea. ''Hoju'' () means the "head of the family" or "head of the household", ''Hojuje'' () is the "head of the family" system, and ''Hojeok'' (; McCune–Reischauer roman ...
'' (similar to the Japanese household registry, written using identical
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
) was repealed in 2005, in favor of a personal registry system. The systems of household registers in China, Korea and Japan date back to the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
or
Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...
or earlier, both since the seventh century.


List of household register systems


East Asia

* The '' Hukou system'' (), also known as ''Huji'' () system, in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
* The '' Koseki'' system () in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
. * The '' Hoju'' scheme is a family register system in
North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
. ''Hoju'' () means the 'head of the family', ''Hojuje'' () is the 'head of the family' system, and ''
Hojeok ''Hoju'' is a family register system in North Korea and formerly in South Korea. ''Hoju'' () means the "head of the family" or "head of the household", ''Hojuje'' () is the "head of the family" system, and ''Hojeok'' (; McCune–Reischauer roman ...
'' (alternate romanization: Hojok; 호적, 戶籍) is the 'family register'. * The former '' Hoju'' system in
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
attracted controversy for being innately patriarchal and hence representing a 'violation of the right to gender equality'. It was abolished on 1 January 2008. On 1 January 2008, 'Family relationship registration' system () began. * The ''
Household registration Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events ( births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in differ ...
'' system (, Mandarin: Hùjí,
Taiwanese Taiwanese may refer to: * Taiwanese language, another name for Taiwanese Hokkien * Something from or related to Taiwan (Formosa) * Taiwanese aborigines, the indigenous people of Taiwan * Han Taiwanese, the Han people of Taiwan * Taiwanese people, r ...
: Hō͘-che̍k,
Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...
: Fu-sit) in
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
.


South East Asia

*Vietnam: The , based on the Chinese
hukou ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration used in mainland China. The system itself is more properly called "''huji''" (), and has origins in ancient China; ''hukou'' is the registration of an individual in the system (''kou'' lit ...
*Thailand: The (), or document proving House Registration, is distributed by a village, city, or other municipal authority. The Tabien Baan (sometimes spelled Tambien Baan) reflects the residents who live at a specific property (this document is not used as proof of Real Estate ownership, for that one must have a Thai Chanote or Title Deed). The Tabien Baan (House Registration) is issued to Thai Citizens and is used as a permanent address for service of process and other official mailings. A Tabien Baan is an extremely important document for Thai nationals because it acts as proof of a Thai person's residence. Therefore, it is used to determine a Thai person's voting district and in the case of Thai men of military age, the Tabien Baan is used to ascertain what district the Thai man will be placed in when drawing for the military draft. This can be critical because if one district reaches a certain level of volunteers then it is not necessary to further draft any inhabitants of that district. As a result, a Thai man's House Registration (Tabien Baan) can have a massive impact upon their life and career depending upon the district in which they live. *Indonesia: (literally 'family card') is a document in Indonesia that proves residency and which records relationships and family members. Every family in Indonesia is required to own one of these documents. Despite its name, the document is technically a document paper (instead of a card) and large in size. This document records the identity of the family's head and the individual members. The document is kept by the family's head, ''ketua RT'' (head of neighborhood association) and ''desa'' or ''kelurahan'' office. The document is a provincial government document, thus, it is not permitted to strike out, change, replace or make additions in the document. Every data change has to be reported to the village or ''kelurahan'' office which will replace the old one with the updated one. Newcomers are not recorded in the document until they have been reported or have been deemed not to have local residency status. Changes in data have to be reported within 14 working days by the family's head to ''desa'' or ''kelurahan'' office. Each report of changes must be submitted with the copy that is held by the family's head and ''ketua RT''. Changes in data include: birth, death or migration (of a member). However, if a family moves to different ''desa'' or ''kelurahan'', the document must be revoked by ''desa'' or ''kelurahan'' office, which must be submitted with the copy that held by family's head and ''ketua RT''. The official in the prior location will produce ''Surat Keterangan Pindah'' (Note of Migration) which will be used to make the new ''Kartu Keluarga'' in the arrival by ''desa'' or ''kelurahan'' office.


Continental Europe

* The former '' familienbuch'' system in Germany. * The ' system in France. * The former ' system in Spain. * The former '' Propiska'' system in Russia. * The
Swedish Population Register Population registration in Sweden ( sv, folkbokföring) is the civil registration of vital events (e.g. births, deaths, and marriages) of the inhabitants of Sweden. The data is kept in the population registry () and is administered by the Swedi ...
.


Africa


Namibia

In
Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
, civil registration mandate lies with the government through the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration, which has offices in all fourteen region of the country. Although some vital events (e.g., marriages) are recorded by various agencies (e.g., church and courts), vital records are contained in the National Population Register, which is maintained by the Department of Civil Registration within the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration. In Namibia, civil registration and identity management systems are integrated and managed by one department. Over the years, Namibia has transformed its civil registration processes, moving away from the manual system to an electronic system. In 2017, Namibia, which has at least 22 birth and registration offices based within the maternity wards of hospitals across the country, launched its e-birth notification system. This improvement is expected to "improve the quality of vital statistics produced in the country. The system is also a welcome departure from the present mechanism of relying on surveys for estimations of birth registration rates and projections of the numbers of births each year."


South Africa

In South Africa, vital records are contained in the National Population Register, which is maintained by the national
Department of Home Affairs An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...
. Any Home Affairs office can record a vital event or issue a certified copy of a vital record.


Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, since 2015, a centralized
civil registration and vital statistics CRVS Systems stands for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems and represents the interoperability of three separate systems: Civil Registration, Health Information, and Vital Statistics. The United Nations (UN) defines Civil Registrati ...
(CRVS) system is being implemented by the non-governmental organization iCivil Africa. This "new tech start up has set themselves a massive task: to register all newborn babies digitally".


Europe


Belgium

Belgium maintains a National Register (''Registre National'' / ''Rijksregister'') of citizens and resident foreigners. The register is administered centrally by the Ministry of the Interior (''SPF Intérieur'' / ''FOD Binnenlandse Zaken'') and locally by Belgian
municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
and embassies. Citizens and resident foreigners are issued with a National Register Number (''numéro de registre national'' / ''rijksregisternummer''), which features on their identity card.


France

France was the first country to create a national registration. In 1539, King
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
ordered in the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, as part of a wider legislation regarding the policing of church benefices, to keep vital records registers in the various church local institutions (mainly
parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...
es). The ordinance orderer the creation of at least a register of
baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
s, as a proof of one's date of birth, and a register of
burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...
s of churchmen, as a proof of one's date of death. Though both registers were kept by religious authorities, they were authenticated by a public notary, always a layman, and were kept in the local royal administration's archives. In fact, as the church kept parish registers since the Middle Ages (the oldest one in France is Givry's, of 1303), these registers were used to meet the ordinance's dispositions. The national registration was fully laicized in 1792 during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
by order of the French Republic. These records have been continued through the present and are kept at the departmental archives. The Civil Registration includes birth, marriage, divorce, and death records.


Germany


Iceland


Netherlands

In the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, maintaining the civil registry ("basisregistratie personen") is the duty of the municipalities. Before the French Rule, the Netherlands did not have a central registration of its population, which was introduced in some parts of the country in 1796 by the French. In 1811, this registration was introduced throughout the country. The Dutch differentiate between the ''basisregistratie personen'', an ongoing database of citizens' information, and the ''burgerlijke stand'', which is a collection (at the municipal level) of documents evidencing certain events taking place in a given municipality, such as birth, marriage,
civil union A civil union (also known as a civil partnership) is a legally recognized arrangement similar to marriage, created primarily as a means to provide recognition in law for same-sex couples. Civil unions grant some or all of the rights of marriage ...
, and death. Beginning on 1 January 1850, municipalities were obliged to keep citizen's records in book form (Dutch: bevolkingsregister). Early in the twentieth century this system was replaced by a card system that registered families. The move toward individual registration took place in 1939 with the introduction of the ''persoonskaart'', a single card registering a single individual, kept in the municipality. Information gathered on this card included family name, first names, gender, position within the family, date and place of birth, marital status, address, and church affiliation, besides information on when a person entered and left a municipality. In 1940, the Dutch government did not want to mandate citizen's identification, but during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
the German occupying government mandated it so they could assess who was to be sent to Germany as forced labor and to select Jewish citizens from the general population. When the war was over, mandatory identification was done away with. In the 1990s all local registries were automated, and starting on 1 October 1994 the individual registration card was replaced with a digital list containing a person's information as collected by the ''gemeentelijke basisadministratie van persoonsgegevens'' (in 2015 replaced with the 'basisregistratie personen'), kept and maintained at the municipal level. Municipalities exchange information through a closed network at the end of each day to a nationwide database, which can be consulted by officials online. Though it was generally considered "un-Dutch," on 1 January 2005 mandatory identification (when asked by a mandated person) was reintroduced for everyone over 14; official identification is to be presented for all important transactions between citizens and government.


Portugal

The civil registry in Portugal is officially established by the "Civil Registry Code" of February 18, 1911 (a few months before the promulgation of the Portuguese Constitution of 1911) and is officially called Institute of Registries and Notaries ( pt, Instituto dos Registos e Notariado). On April 20, 1911, the "Law of Separation of the Church of the State" radicalized the secular state and determined that all parish registers (baptisms, marriages, and deaths) prior to 1911 should be civilly effective and transferred from parishes to newly established Civil Registry Offices. This was a previous struggle that had come since the formation of the Civil Registry Association in 1895, a Masonic organization presented by its mentors as "a strong anti-clerical and antireligious stronghold". In general, there is a civil registry office ( pt, Instituto dos Registos e Notariado) in each
Portuguese province The term "provinces" ( pt, províncias) has been used throughout history to identify regions of continental Portugal. Current legal subdivisions of Portugal do not coincide with the provinces, but several provinces, in their 19th- and 20th-cen ...
, and in the cities of
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...
,
Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...
,
Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; cel-x-proto, Cale), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a population ...
and Setubal there are eleven, four, two and two conservatories respectively. In small and medium-sized municipalities, conservatories also accumulate other functions besides the civil registry, such as land registration ( pt, registo predial), commercial (legal entities, pt, registo comercial) and vehicles ( pt, registo de automóveis). In Lisbon, the Central Registry Office is located, which is responsible for registrations involving Portuguese citizens abroad and for the management of any procedure that concerns Portuguese citizenship.


Romania

Civil registries were introduced in 1806-1812 during the Russian occupation, and they followed the Tsarist model of keeping them with church records. By the "Communal Law" (''Legea comunală'') of 31 March 1864 subsequent record keeping became the responsibility of the mayor in each dwelling, who was allowed to delegate it to one of his helpers. An effort by the state to gather the ancient historical records happened around 1926-1932 but in some cases as late as 1948–1952; a good number of these early records were lost in this process, sometimes literally by the truckload.


Russia

Vital records Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...
(births, deaths and marriages) are called ''Acts of civil state'' or ''Acts of civil status'' (акты гражданского состояния - ''akty grazhdankogo sostoyaniya'') in Russia. These records are available only for relatives of a died person. Acts of civil status replaced ''Metricheskiye knigi'' (Parish registers) in 1918. All registers before 1918 are open for everyone. Births, deaths and marriages must be registered by register office called ''Body of registration of acts of civil status'' (орган записи актов гражданского состояния - ''organ zapisi aktov grazhdanskogo sostoyaniya'' or орган ЗАГС - ''organ ZAGS'' for short) or the Palace of Marriages (Дворец бракосочетаний) for civil marriage ceremonies. The system is decentralized. Each
Russian federal subject The federal subjects of Russia, also referred to as the subjects of the Russian Federation (russian: субъекты Российской Федерации, subyekty Rossiyskoy Federatsii) or simply as the subjects of the federation (russian ...
has its own regional body as a part of regional government. The Unified state register of acts of civil status (EGR ZAGS, Единый государственный реестр записей актов гражданского состояния - ЕГР ЗАГС) maintained by the Federal Tax Service of Russia began operations since October 1, 2018. The system of resident registration in Russia (and former propiska) maintained by centralized federal body is not related to this system.


Sweden

In Sweden, the civil registry is maintained by the
Swedish Tax Agency The Swedish Tax Agency ( sv, Skatteverket) is a government agency in Sweden responsible for national tax collection and administering the population registration. The agency was formed on 1 January 2004 through the merger of the Swedish Nationa ...
(''Skatteverket''); up into the 1990s the
Church of Sweden The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...
was responsible. Recording of births and deaths was stipulated in the early 17th century, formal national
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
es have been made since the mid-18th century, and Sweden has one of the longest and most comprehensive suites of civil records of any country.


United Kingdom

In the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, civil registration was first introduced, in England and Wales, via the 1653 marriage act, which transferred the statutory duty of recording marriages, births and burials, established in 1538, from the established churches, to the civil authorities, with a justice of peace, rather than the parish priest required to maintain a
register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...
. The act was repealed on the restitution of the monarchy in 1660, with the duty reverting to the established churches, until the
Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836 Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...
which affected England and Wales. The General Register Office for England and Wales was set up and the civil registration of
birth Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the f ...
s,
marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
s, and
death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
s in
England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is En ...
became mandatory on 1 July 1837. Initially the onus lay on registrars to discover and record events, so parents only had to supply information if and when asked. In 1875, the Births & Deaths Act 1874 came into force, whereby those present at a birth or death were required to report the event. Subsequent legislation introduced similar systems in
Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...
(all of which was then part of the United Kingdom) on 1 April 1845 for Protestant marriages and on 1 January 1864 for all birth, marriage and death events. Civil registration was introduced in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
on 1 January 1855. The administration of individual registration districts is the responsibility of ''registrars'' in the relevant
local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-l ...
. There is also a national body for each
jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...
. The local offices are generally responsible both for maintaining the original registers and for providing copies to the national body for central retention. A ''superintendent registrar'' facilitates the legal preliminaries to marriage, conducts civil marriage ceremonies and retains in his or her custody all completed birth, death and marriage registers for the district. The office of the
superintendent registrar The superintendent registrar is a statutory officer of the vital registration service in England and Wales. The Register Office in any location is the office of the Superintendent Registrar who has legal custody of all the birth, marriage and d ...
is the district
register office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in Eng ...
, often referred to (informally) in the media as the "registry office". Today, both officers may also conduct statutory civil partnership preliminaries and ceremonies, citizenship ceremonies and other non-statutory ceremonies such as naming or renewal of vows. Certified copies of the entries made by the registrars over the years are issued on a daily basis either for genealogical research or for modern legal purposes such as supporting passport applications or ensuring eligibility for the appropriate junior sports leagues. On 1 December 2007 registrars and superintendent registrars became employees of their local authority for the first time following the enactment of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.


England and Wales

Births in England and Wales must be registered within 42 days, whilst deaths must be registered within five days unless an inquest is called or a postmortem is held. Marriages are registered at the time of the ceremony by either # the officiating minister of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
or the
Church in Wales The Church in Wales ( cy, Yr Eglwys yng Nghymru) is an Anglican church in Wales, composed of six dioceses. The Archbishop of Wales does not have a fixed archiepiscopal see, but serves concurrently as one of the six diocesan bishops. The pos ...
, # an authorised person at a
registered building Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...
, religious, or # a registrar at a
register office A register office or The General Register Office, much more commonly but erroneously registry office (except in official use), is a British government office where births, deaths, marriages, civil partnership, stillbirths and adoptions in Eng ...
,
registered building Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...
or
approved premise Approved may refer to: *Approved drug, a preparation that has been validated for a therapeutic use by a ruling authority of a government *''Approved'', a 2013 album by Chester Thompson Chester Cortez Thompson (born December 11, 1948) is an Amer ...
. The official registers are not directly accessible by the general public. Instead, indexes are made available which can be used to find the relevant register entry and then request a certified copy of the details. The General Register Office—now merged into the
Her Majesty's Passport Office His Majesty's Passport Office (HMPO) is an agency of the Home Office in the United Kingdom. It provides passports for British nationals worldwide and was formed on 1 April 2006 as the Identity and Passport Service before being renamed HM Pass ...
—has overall responsibility for registration administration.


Scotland

Civil registration came into force in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...
on 1 January 1855. A significant difference from the English system is the greater detail required for a registration. This means that if a certified copy of an entry is requested, it will contain much more information. The
General Register Office for Scotland The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) ( gd, Oifis Choitcheann a' Chlàraidh na h-Alba) was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adop ...
has overall responsibility for registration administration and drafting legislative changes in this area (as well as census data). They are governed by the
Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965 The Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which amended the existing legislation controlling the registration system of births, deaths and marriages in Scotland founde ...
and subsequent legislation (responsibility for which has now been devolved to the
Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyr ...
).


North America


Mexico

In
Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...
, vital records (birth, death and marriage certificates) are registered in the Registro Civil, as called in Spanish. Each state has its own registration form. Until the 1960s, birth certificates were written by hand, in a styled, cursive
calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined ...
(almost unreadable for the new generations) and typically issued on security paper. After the 1960s, they were issued typed by machine. Currently all copies (from people born before and after the 1960s) are standardized in brown-security paper and are typed automatically by a computer and the
CURP The Clave Única de Registro de Población (translated into English as Unique Population Registry Code or else as Personal ID Code Number) (abbreviated CURP) is a unique identity code for both citizens and residents of Mexico. Each CURP code is a ...
(control identification number in Mexico) and the specific dates of issuing are already issued.


United States

In the United States,
vital records Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some ...
such as
birth certificates A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
,
death certificates A death certificate is either a legal document issued by a medical practitioner which states when a person died, or a document issued by a government civil registration office, that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death, as ...
, and frequently
marriage certificate A marriage certificate (sometimes: marriage lines) is an official statement that two people are married. In most jurisdictions, a marriage certificate is issued by a government official only after the civil registration of the marriage. In so ...
s are maintained by the Office of Vital Statistics or Office of Vital Records in each individual state. Other documents such as
deed In common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered, and in some jurisdictions, sealed. It is commonly associated with transferrin ...
s,
mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...
documents,
name change Name change is the legal act by a person of adopting a new name different from their current name. The procedures and ease of a name change vary between jurisdictions. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose procedures for a name chang ...
documents, and divorce records, as well as marriage certificates for those states not centralizing these records, are maintained by the clerk of court of each individual
county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
. However, the term 'civil registry' is not used.


Asia


Iran


Japan

In Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare counts the number of births, deaths, stillbirths, marriages and divorces throughout the year and publishes them as vital statistics annually. Japanese civil registration is primarily based on the koseki system.


Philippines

In the Philippines, civil registrations are maintained by the
Philippine Statistics Authority The Philippine Statistics Authority ( Filipino: ''Pangasiwaan ng Estadistika ng Pilipinas''), abbreviated as PSA, is the central statistical authority of the Philippine government that ''collects, compiles, analyzes and publishes statistical in ...
.


Oceania


Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...
has had compulsory civil registration since the mid 19th century. Today it is carried out and maintained by each state and territory. Prior to the colonies taking over civil registration, records of baptisms, marriages and burials were kept by individual churches. Because early civil registration often involved the churches, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish whether early records are civil or church records. Civil registration was carried out by government employees independent of the churches. The registration procedure and information recorded in records varies between jurisdictions.


See also

* Births and Deaths Registration Act *
Census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
*
Civil registration and vital statistics CRVS Systems stands for Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems and represents the interoperability of three separate systems: Civil Registration, Health Information, and Vital Statistics. The United Nations (UN) defines Civil Registrati ...
*
National identification number A national identification number, national identity number, or national insurance number or JMBG/EMBG is used by the governments of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purp ...
* Race and ethnicity in censuses * Resident registration *
Social research Social research is a research conducted by social scientists following a systematic plan. Social research methodologies can be classified as quantitative and qualitative. * Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable ...
* Vital record *
Vital statistics (government records) Vital statistics is accumulated data gathered on live births, deaths, migration, foetal deaths, marriages and divorces. The most common way of collecting information on these events is through civil registration, an administrative system use ...


References


External links

Australia:
Guide to Australian Vital Records at the Northern Territory Library
Republic of Ireland:
General Register Office
United Kingdom:
General Register Office
(England and Wales)
General Register Office for Scotland

General Register Office Northern Ireland
United States:

{{Authority control Public records Vital statistics (government records) Administrative law Civil registries