The United Kingdom has comprehensive birth registration systems in place. It is a legal requirement to register a birth in the United Kingdom within 42 days. There is no direct measure of number of children who are unregistered. As registration is comprehensive, a figure of 100% is used.

Information provided at birth registration is used to produce birth statistics, which are published separately for each of the United Kingdom countries. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish birth statistics for England and Wales. For more information, see the user guide to birth statistics. National Records of Scotland publish birth statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research agency (NISRA) publish birth statistics for Northern Ireland. A summary of birth statistics for the United Kingdom and constituent countries is published in the Vital statistics in the UK - births, deaths and marriages tables.

Sub-categories

Choose categories from the dropdowns below to see different breakdowns of the data. Some will not be available until a higher level is chosen.

Download Source CSV

Download source CSV for disaggregations

No headline data available

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from UK statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from UK statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other UK-specific metadata information.

Indicator available
Indicator description
Geographical coverage

United Kingdom
Unit of measurement

Percentage (%)
Definitions
Available disaggregations
Calculations
Other information

Data follows the UN specification for this indicator. This indicator has been identified in collaboration with topic experts.
Data last updated 02 March 2022
Metadata last updated 02 March 2022

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator name

Proportion of children under 5 years of age whose births have been registered with a civil authority, by age
Target name

By 2030, provide legal identity for all, including birth registration
Global indicator description
UN designated tier

Tier I
UN custodian agency

United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEFF)
Link to UN metadata United Nations Sustainable Development Goals metadata for target 16.9 opens in a new window
Organisation

UNICEF
Periodicity

Annual
Earliest available data

2011
Geographical coverage

United Kingdom
Link to data source Birth registration opens in a new window
Release date 01 August 2021
Next release

Unknown
Statistical classification

Non-official
Contact details

data@unicef.org
Other information

Data sourced from the United Nations Statistical Database (UNSD).
Back to top