CRVS

The Cook Islands’ roll-out of an open-source system to record births, marriages and deaths is seen as a reference case for the Pacific, where many are still born and die without ever being registered.

A stark picture emerges for the Pacific in new estimates showing average death registration completeness of just 19.8%. This leaves governments without the basic information needed to understand why people are dying and how many of these deaths could be prevented.

For the first time in 50 years, Fiji is reviewing the laws that govern the recording of births, deaths, marriages and other life events. The reform aims to modernise outdated systems, strengthen rights and identity, and make sure every Fijian counts.

A self-paced e-learning course on data cleaning for civil registration-based vital statistics (CRVS) has been launched by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in partnership with the Pacific Community (SPC), Vital Strategies and the Norway Office for National Statistics.

An estimated one million children in the Pacific region lack an official identity, hampering their access to education, healthcare and legal rights, said SPC’s Mr Jeff Montgomery in an interview today with New Zealand radio programme ‘Pacific Mornings’.

Medical practitioners across the North Pacific gathered in Guam last week for a hands-on training aimed at one of civil registration’s critical challenges: accurately recording causes of death.

Users of population projections and estimates in PDH.stat on the Pacific Data Hub are notified of an important change in the source for these data from 10 April 2025.

From the right to vote to reliable population counts, the high number of births and deaths that go unrecorded in the Pacific has generational impacts on both individuals and their country.

Births, deaths, marriages and other major life events in Tuvalu are set to make greater use of digital systems and data-sharing, supported by the Pacific Community (SPC)’s expertise in this area.

De-identified causes-of-death information will be exchanged between Fiji, Tonga and Tuvalu in a pilot project supported by the Pacific Community (SPC) that sees the countries sharing expertise towards better health outcomes.