Findings from different versions of Rwanda vital statistics report show improvement in shares of timely registered births and deaths since 2019 up to 2024.
Birth and Fertility statistics
Birth registration completeness at the national level remained relatively stable with rates 90.0% in 2023 and 90.3% in 2024.
The most significant improvement in timeliness of birth registration started in 2021 where timely registered births increased to 93.7% from 72.3% in 2020. CRVS system generated data (adjusted) in 2024, show the Total fertility rate (TFR) equivalent to 3.6.
Mortality statistics
The number of deaths registered increased from 27,010 in 2022 to 40,704 deaths in 2024. The completeness of death registration was found to be 46.1% at the national level a significant increase from 41.8% in 2023
Mortality data are generated from the civil registration system which enables the continuous production of mortality statistics and contributes to the understanding of the burden of diseases at national and sub-national levels.
Cause of Death Statistics
The analysis of the 2024 CRVS mortality data using ANACoD3 revealed that 64.7% of deaths were assigned to usable causes, consistent with the previous year. However, ill-defined causes of death remained high at approximately 35.3%.
Non-communicable diseases account for the largest share of causes of death at 47.7% in 2024, up from 46% in 2023. Communicable diseases follow, representing 42.9% in 2024. Meanwhile, the proportion of deaths due to injuries and external causes declined from 11% in 2023 to 9.4% in 2024.
Verbal autopsy for deaths occurring outside health facilities
Recognizing that approximately 70% of deaths occur outside healthcare facilities, a regulatory measure has been implemented to address this gap. By the end of 2024, a total of 13,703 verbal autopsies were conducted for 20,317 community deaths registered for deaths occurred and registered in the same period.
Marriage statistics
Data obtained from the NCI-CRVS system shows a decrease in the number of marriages registered in 2024 compared to 2023, from 57,880 to 52,878 marriages, equivalent to 9.5% of decrease.
The comparison of registered marriages with the resident population size results in a crude marriage rate of 3.8%.
Data reveals that “community of property” was the preferred matrimonial regime for most couples in Rwanda, accounting for 96.2% of registered marriages in 2024.