NEW data on birth registrations in Fiji has revealed a significant decline in the completeness of registrations in recent years, particularly from 2021 onwards.
This is stated in the Fiji Bureau of Statistics (FBoS) report ‘Addressing gender inequities in on-time birth registration in Fiji through identification of priority geographic areas for targeted interventions’.
Data show that as at February 18, 2025, a total of 20,670 birth registrations were recorded for children born in 2015.
This declined slightly to 19,154 in 2016, 19,334 in 2017 and 19,417 in 2018, before rising to 20,088 in 2019.
Numbers then fell to 18,931 in 2020, dropping further to 14,006 in 2021 and 12,321 in 2022.
Registrations declined sharply again to 8761 in 2023 and just 5471 in 2024.
“It is clear from this data that the completeness of birth registrations in Fiji in recent years, particularly from 2021 onwards, is lower than in previous years,” the report stated.
The report found that birth registration completeness for 2016 to 2019 was estimated at 95 per cent or higher.
However, this dropped to 80.9 per cent in 2020, before falling sharply to 61.7 per cent in 2021 and 52.0 per cent in 2022.
“Current analysis indicates that completeness remains low for 2023 and 2024,” the report noted.
