**Executive Summary:**
This document is the official response to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3687 concerning birth certificates, citizenship proof, and the registration of births and deaths in India. It outlines the legal framework for Indian citizenship as per the Citizenship Act of 1955 and provides state-wise data on registered births from 1998-2022, sourced from the Civil Registration System (CRS). The response was answered on 12th August 2025.
**Key Points / Main Content:**
* **Citizenship Acquisition:**
* Indian citizenship is governed by the Citizenship Act, 1955 and its associated rules.
* Citizenship can be acquired through birth (Section 3), descent (Section 4), registration (Section 5), naturalization (Section 6), or incorporation of territory (Section 7).
* Eligibility criteria for citizenship are defined within the Citizenship Act, 1955 and its rules.
* **Registration of Births and Deaths:**
* The Registration of Births and Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969, governs the registration process.
* The Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, compiles an annual national report, "Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System (CRS)," using data from States/Union Territories.
* State-wise data on the total number of registered births from 1998 to 2022 is available in Annexure I.
**Impact Analysis:**
* **Citizens of India:**
* *Impact:* Clarification on the legal basis and methods for acquiring Indian citizenship.
* *Action Required:* Understand the provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955, to determine eligibility for citizenship.
* **State Governments/Union Territories:**
* *Impact:* Provides data and context on birth registration coverage.
* *Action Required:* Continue to accurately record and report birth and death statistics through the Civil Registration System (CRS) to the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India.
* **Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India:**
* *Impact:* Mandated to compile and publish the "Vital Statistics of India" report.
* *Action Required:* Continue to collect and analyze birth and death registration data from States/Union Territories to produce the annual national report.
Key Entities Referenced
Ministry of Home Affairs : The Indian government ministry responsible for internal security and policy.
SHRI SUDAMA PRASAD : The Member of Parliament who raised the unstarred question in Lok Sabha.
SHRI NITYANAND RAI : The Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs who provided the answer to the Lok Sabha question.
Citizenship Act, 1955 : The primary legislation governing citizenship in India.
Registration of Births and Deaths RBD Act, 1969 : The central act governing the registration of births and deaths in India.
Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India : The organization responsible for bringing out the annual national report on vital statistics.
Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System CRS : An annual national report based on the data received from States and Union Territories.
Lok Sabha : The lower house of the Parliament of India.
See Full Document Text
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
LOK SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.3687
TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 12THAUGUST, 2025/SRAVANA 21, 1947 (SAKA)
BIRTH CERTIFICATES
3687. SHRI SUDAMA PRASAD
Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:
(a) the details of categories of valid documents that are required for
people to prove theircitizenship in India;
(b) the total number of birth certificates issued nationwide during the
last 25 years, State-wise;and
(c) whether the Government received reports about low coverage of
issuing of birth and deathcertificates vis-à-vis number of births and
deaths by State Government, if so, the list of top 10States with
necessary data provided?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS
(SHRI NITYANAND RAI)
(a): The citizenship of India is governed under the provisions of the
Citizenship Act, 1955 and rules made thereunder. It can be acquired by
birth (Section 3), by decent (Section 4), by registration (Section 5), by
naturalization (Section 6) or by incorporation of territory (Section 7) of
the Citizenship Act, 1955. The eligibility criteria for acquisition and
determination of citizenship is as per the provisions of the Citizenship
Act, 1955 and rules made thereunder.-2-
L.S.US.Q.NO. 3687 FOR 12.08.205
(b) & (c): The Registration of births and deaths in the country is done
under the provisions of a central Act namely Registration of Births and
Deaths (RBD) Act, 1969. Based on the annual report on registered births
and deaths received from the CRBD of the respective States /Union
Territories, the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner,
India brings out an annual national report titled ‘Vital Statistics of India
based on the Civil Registration System (CRS)’. State-wise and nationwide
total number of registered births during last 25 years is in Annexure I.
********ANNEXURE-I
L.S.US.Q.NO. 3687 FOR 12.08.2025
Registered births 1998-2022
Sl. India/ State/ Union Number of registered births
No. Territory 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
India 11893946 12287748 12946910 12993577 15645632 15290261 15777612 16394625 18121295 19469756 19993799 21292574 21430434 21836920 21951519 22482951 23001523 23136145 22200991 22104418 23269383 24820886 24222444 24201614 25439164
States
1 Andhra Pradesh 670891 638974 933717 881256 986599 913607 952629 933498 1124280 1184555 1179114 1164942 1192721 1186895 1122879 722843 848883 851499 814754 818165 760716 754939 714017 737189 752403
2 Arunachal Pradesh 20698 19321 20398 24510 33011 27416 22920 19974 29437 26940 33091 30828 37110 32513 41619 42261 43246 62058 47963 95539 77249 46837 39493 43644 48711
3 Assam 205812 220362 275183 323261 369044 421511 474737 505966 528559 544321 554997 580027 732788 600656 612576 688458 723482 1005681 734454 708744 767856 762318 751694 663173 707036
4 Bihar N.A. N.A. 119100 102052 119728 156625 307181 460746 553998 713433 858936 1223561 1268550 1626655 2058637 1596494 1694565 1758356 1697762 2052273 2241089 2809167 3044931 3252977 3071603
5 Chhattisgarh 383334 398327 343929 306442 335080 322143 333004 384815 391804 381247 285886 301153 315082 334288 448675 536256 845337 655847 763878 694030 570056 557723 515618 476572 560641
6 Goa 22716 22501 23191 26087 26186 24757 24869 24631 22971 22396 22577 21495 21168 21995 22339 21667 21415 21727 21610 20472 20436 19736 18316 15396 17326
7 Gujarat 1131701 1071685 1115204 1098252 1088225 1097119 1236195 1154608 1254293 1261262 1315978 1345861 1327404 1280441 1276330 1266047 1205140 1254838 1252090 1166848 1168516 1173759 1103241 1021362 1126522
8 Haryana 401529 413182 426161 417006 426194 434852 470531 471968 508970 511973 536521 538910 544620 563557 564280 581213 584739 569340 570747 535198 541405 529992 591914 549829 544109
9 Himachal Pradesh 115068 120656 125150 133600 131157 133062 137473 134664 140329 133157 135575 137328 134719 129263 127611 121232 106818 115418 101595 101238 97031 94760 90772 92928 90988
10 Jharkhand 102477 124373 133646 134100 145420 179664 215442 255325 285562 349079 409037 406657 443182 479632 489953 620870 642286 691700 698026 699945 669766 715920 648453 554822 702144
11 Karnataka 1042256 997649 1009716 1017224 973653 1001749 988520 1007868 1046531 1046424 1082450 1076383 1071518 1108562 1124490 1068671 1087530 1053248 1107258 1099019 1028934 1047877 988143 899065 1037182
12 Kerala 591508 596948 593724 579063 572847 549719 558933 555122 556326 545154 535738 544348 546964 559828 544388 536352 534458 516013 496292 503597 488174 480113 446891 419767 439742
13 Madhya Pradesh 746645 824823 759117 715854 732356 789985 981723 1027916 1266936 1412344 1632402 1618379 1605729 1688046 1710508 1655691 1613269 1519694 1465779 1468191 1486794 1602043 1653629 1577555 1789365
14 Maharashtra 1652244 1739577 1828027 1825145 1864859 1863585 1688893 1694344 1717571 1771368 1963281 1976493 1937727 1925204 1956286 2005538 1962601 1941352 1801451 1809353 1733501 1747145 1712003 1718682 1919023
15 Manipur 18900 17081 20145 19665 21415 22667 23741 24231 24851 26431 26532 26722 28487 28762 30172 47615 58756 59703 N.A. 74179 68733 30120 23895 15809 52833
16 Meghalaya 32025 29583 46695 34354 32493 43521 39035 76396 68828 62183 65837 78129 87103 92994 102012 76616 75223 87242 N.A. 75118 86999 130255 112464 102848 127704
17 Mizoram 16001 16848 18856 19730 20311 20301 20222 20133 22141 22838 23294 25535 25752 25420 26042 24584 24516 24786 22497 20984 20984 23808 23320 24314 26049
18 Nagaland 29694 39351 38500 41359 42725 41917 45129 47279 47027 42247 49133 42679 45269 45669 45709 45769 58950 79539 72984 69121 47357 77706 46079 64988 80813
19 Odisha 655148 673051 723867 686503 715469 697766 696217 734474 754723 751163 747370 738772 767060 785524 790648 765388 800577 779963 772665 692658 676542 675276 671355 646075 676394
20 Punjab 481960 485764 478062 470547 460267 476527 480088 485625 494830 495063 506704 516246 507665 511058 478176 448409 463689 436170 463788 417460 403200 391125 381200 386004 400579ANNEXURE-I
L.S.US.Q.NO. 3687 FOR 12.08.2025
Registered births 1998-2022
21 Rajasthan 471674 523805 610837 700121 987145 828107 996765 1149817 1445675 1480684 1532705 1659437 1745057 1728321 1757693 1770085 1751191 1769339 1806205 1689409 1743150 1795488 1869383 1900605 1902140
22 Sikkim 7507 8052 9196 9527 10148 11057 11354 10886 10825 9957 9650 9512 8424 8588 8591 8589 8057 7878 7132 7124 7035 6639 7189 6212 6177
23 Tamil Nadu 1089989 1125588 1114828 1101376 1107351 1088659 1091016 1071863 1054929 1073635 1053826 1058142 1065271 1157979 1205092 1185397 1206850 1167506 1062388 948573 915406 941059 934019 913084 936837
24 Telangana Included in Andhra Pradesh 596424 569470 612489 624581 617620 652791 841268 669320 611651 703362
25 Tripura 46763 32441 49223 55270 38097 38520 57747 N.A. 52768 N.A. N.A. N.A. 40511 44615 46449 46498 45741 51930 43334 79200 73575 72053 66589 67155 70591
26 Uttarakhand N.A. (was included in Uttar Pradesh) 111271 117265 111755 126708 125645 132094 136196 146295 148078 143242 162869 210445 226175 164167 203822 238061 231669 248220 271320
27 Uttar Pradesh N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. 2215745 1903188 1610172 1939790 2514834 3416225 3228841 4111043 3906734 3641066 3237346 3895924 3916825 3881295 3488980 3545785 4634084 5131999 4854098 5075466 5443003
28 West Bengal 1418524 1599464 1601210 1780334 1686598 1693078 1681102 1542634 1540222 1505964 1510306 1337034 1295324 1495880 1530332 1357428 1330000 1337146 1415228 1318441 1473914 1507813 1475410 1597267 1358851
Union Territories
1 A & N Islands 6359 6937 6365 6346 6503 6242 6318 5594 6103 6018 6074 5887 5785 5613 5448 5371 5672 5193 4897 4705 4653 4497 4617 3856 3949
2 Chandigarh 18640 19281 19764 19546 19629 20353 22179 22776 23923 24341 24731 24248 24965 25723 26947 28592 29230 29885 31624 32255 32373 31342 23475 22405 27169
3 D & N D & N 4845 5336 6192 5316 6029 6775 5524 5999 6290 6405 6572 7325 6316 6865 6678 7015 6788 7858 8979 9532 9420 9731
Haveli and Haveli
11916 10403 12491
Daman & Daman 4206 3968 4123 4253 4347 4572 4223 3924 4031 4082 4174 4254 4044 4127 4226 4280 4084 4328 3996 4083 4046 4206
Diu & Diu
4 Delhi 284146 287524 317376 296287 300659 301165 305974 324336 322750 322044 333908 354482 359463 353759 360473 370000 373693 374012 379161 367046 362803 365868 301645 271786 300350
5 Jammu & Kashmir 184343 185234 132941 115255 120375 123883 128296 132635 136747 139795 144912 146410 145385 146370 N.A. 151585 154676 152550 151935 152660 153590 155486 161607 175063 192827
6 Ladakh Included in Jammu & Kashmir 4020 4257 3067
7 Lakshadweep 1235 1187 1358 1183 1096 1065 936 1039 1020 923 818 668 675 734 734 693 658 819 844 823 820 947 1082 1019 876
8 Puducherry 35108 38875 41109 42753 44871 45104 47253 46484 49456 49397 47184 47590 45666 44023 40102 39854 40239 39298 39939 40863 42563 43810 28977 30166 34987
Note:
1. New Formed States : Data for Chhattisgarh was extracted from the reports of Madhya Pradesh for the years 1998-1999, Jharkhand data for the years 1998-2001 was provided by Jharkhand State.
2. For the period 1998 to 2000, total registered births/deaths of States/Union Territories exclude data for Bihar from 1998 to 1999
3. In 2001, total registered births/deaths of States/Union Territories exclude data from Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
4. Total registered births and deaths of States/Union Territories do not include data for Uttarakhand from 2002 to 2003, Tripura for 2005 and 2007-2009 and Jammu & Kashmir for the year 2012.
5.Total registered births and deaths of States/Union Territories for the year 2016 do not include data from Manipur and Meghalaya.
Source: Vital Statistics in India Based on Civil Registration System 2022. (For data 2013-2022)
Vital Statistics in India Based on Civil Registration System 2012. (For Data 2003-2012)
Vital Statistics in India Based on Civil Registration System Special Report 2002-2005 (For data 1998-2002)