Delhi registers decline in birth rate, sex ratio: Annual report

New Delhi, Sep 15 (PTI) The sex ratio in Delhi declined to 920 females per thousand males in 2024 as compared to 922 in the previous year, according to an official report.

The annual report on Registration of Births and Deaths in Delhi has been brought out for the year 2024 by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics and the Office of Chief Registrar (Births & Deaths) of the Delhi government.

The birth rate in Delhi was worked out to be 14 per thousand of population during 2024, as against 14.66 in 2023. The death rate per thousand of population in 2024 rose to 6.37 as against 6.16 a year ago, said the recently released report.

In a positive sign, the infant mortality and maternal mortality rates declined in 2024, though only marginally. The infant mortality rate per thousand live births was 22.40 during 2024, as against 23.61 during 2023.

Maternal mortality rate per thousand live births was 0.44 in 2024, while it was 0.45 in 2023.

The average number of births per day in Delhi was worked out to be 837 in 2024, with a total of 3,06,459 births registered during the year. The total number of births registered in 2023 was 3,15,087, said the report.

Among the total births registered in 2024, 1,59,549 (52.06 per cent) were males, 1,46,832 (47.91 per cent) females and 78 (0.03 per cent) 'others', including trans gender or ambiguous in nature.

Further, the report stated that there were a total of 2,94,464 institutional births, out of which 1,91,727 (65.11 per cent) births occurred in government hospitals.

Age group of the mother at the time of delivery analysed in the report revealed that in the maximum (36.98 per cent) cases, it was 25-29 years, followed by 27.11 per cent cases in the 20-24 years group, and in 24.57 per cent cases, the age of the mothers was 30-34 years.

In 2.57 per cent of cases, the age of mothers was 19 years or less.

The sex ratio in India is expressed as the number of female births to a thousand male births for a particular period.

As per International practice, the sex ratio is worked out as the number of male births per 100 female births. A sex ratio of around 105 males per 100 females is considered an acceptable level, it said. PTI VIT RT