Birth statistics
In 2020, the overall birth registration completeness rate was found to be 85.8% with an insignificant difference between males and females (85.7% and 85.9%, respectively).
The comparison of registered births taking into consideration registration timeliness shows a decrease in the share of timely registered births in 2020 compared to 2019, from 78% to 72.3%, something that resulted in an increase in late registrations, from 22.0 to 27.7%.
Total fertility rate
The Total fertility rate (TFR) represents the number of children who would be born per woman (or per 1,000 women) if she/they were to pass through the childbearing years bearing children according to a current schedule of age-specific fertility rates.
The computation of TFR is the sum of the age-specific birth rates (usually for 5-year age groups between 15 and 49) for female residents of a specific area during a specified period multiplied by 5 (where the age-specific birth rates are 5-year birth rates).
It can also be calculated as the sum of a 1-year age-specific birth rate for females aged between 15 and 49. TFR is also interpreted as the average number of children a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period during their lifetime if they were subject to experiencing the ASFRs of a given period. CRVS generated data (adjusted) in 2020, showed a TFR equivalent to 3.7.
Death statistics
In 2020, the death registration completeness is 29.9% at national level. The computation is based on the number of deaths registered (22,634 deaths).
The CRVS system generated data show a high percentage of deaths occurring in community compared to deaths occurring at health facilities. The share of community deaths occupies 60.6% of the total number of registered deaths in 2020 (up from 56.5% in 2019) while health facilities’ deaths represent 39.4% (down from 43.5% in 2019).
Cause of death statistics
The proportion of causes of death assigned to usable causes declined from 48.4% in 2019 to 43.8% in 2020. In part, this reflects issuing arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, which adversely affected efforts to improve the quality of causes of death certification in the health facilities.
The causes of death are dominated by communicable diseases with 62.3% (down from 70.0% in 2019) followed by non-communicable diseases with 34.7% (up from 27.9% in 2019) and group of injuries and external causes with 3.0% (up from 2.1% in 2019).
Marriage statistics
The CRVS web-based system shows a decrease in the number of marriages registered in 2020 compared to 2019, from 48,526 to 30,859 marriages, implying a decrease equivalent to 17,667 marriages. This is hypothetically due to the ant COVID-19 measures where many forms of social gatherings, including marriage celebration ceremonies were often prohibited to reduce the spread of the pandemic.
CRVS web-based system-generated data show a total of 30,859 marriages registered in 2020. Data show that most of couples in Rwanda choose “community of property” as their matrimonial regime as it occupied 98.1 % of marriages registered in 2020.