UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Reports A Rise In Birth Registrations, with 150 million children still unregistered worldwide

Account to report nearly 80% of children under five have been registered at birth in the past five years. However, the document titled “The Right Start in Life: Global Levels and Trends in Birth Registration” reveals a concerning fact: 150 million children under five remain unregistered, which means they are not recognized by government systems.

According to UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell, we must provide “stronger efforts to ensure that every child, everywhere, is registered at birth.”

Birth registration is more than a legal formality – it is the gateway to rights and protections.

It ensures a child’s legal identity, prevents statelessness, and facilitates access to essential services like healthcare, education, and social protection.

Yet over 50 million children with registered births still lack birth certificates, a critical document for proving registration and securing nationality.

While global birth registration rates have climbed from 75 percent in 2019 to 77 percent today, progress has been uneven.

Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, and Central and Southern Asia lead the way with less than 30 percent of unregistered births.

Lagging is Sub-Saharan Africa home to half of the world’s unregistered children.

Within the region, the disparities are stark: Southern Africa reaches 88 percent of registrations while Eastern and Middle Africa remain behind at just 41 percent.

Rapid population growth in the region will exacerbate the challenge, with projections suggesting over 100 million unregistered children by 2030 if current trends persist.

Families face numerous barriers to registration.

They often mention long distances and multiple visits to registration facilities, a lack of awareness about the process and discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, or religion.

High costs also cause recurrent issues.

Nevertheless, countries like Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Rwanda offer some hope, having achieved universal or near-universal registration through innovative approaches.

Their key strategies have included leveraging health and education systems, eliminating fees, and streamlining registration processes through digital technology.

The agency also plans to advocate for streamlined processes to enhance accessibility and use health, education, and social protection programs to boost registration.

Legal reforms, through enacting inclusive laws to ensure equitable access and empowering communities to demand registration as a fundamental right, are also crucial.

“Birth registration ensures children are immediately  under the law, providing a foundation for protection from harm and exploitation, as well as access to essential services like vaccines, healthcare, and education,” Russell note.

She highlighted the crucial need to keep up efforts.