Nagaland records India's lowest sex ratio at birth in 2024 as CRS report highlights births, deaths and demographic trends
KOHIMA — Nagaland recorded the country's lowest sex ratio at birth (SRB) in 2024 at 806 females per 1,000 males, marking the state's lowest level in the past eight years, according to the Civil Registration System (CRS) 2024 report released on July 1.
The report showed that the national sex ratio at birth, based on registered events for 2024 (excluding Sikkim), stood at 933 females per 1,000 males. Nagaland was followed by Lakshadweep (865) and Jharkhand (890).
Nagaland's SRB had remained above the national average during the previous eight years before dropping sharply in 2024. The state's year-wise SRB was 948 in 2017, 965 in 2018, 1,001 in 2019, 953 in 2020, 962 in 2021, 1,068 in 2022, 1,007 in 2023, and 806 in 2024.
The report clarified that the sex ratio at birth was calculated after excluding births registered with a delay of more than one year.
It showed that a total of 61,219 births were registered in Nagaland in 2024. Of these, 33,870 were registered in rural areas, comprising 17,401 males and 16,469 females, while 27,349 births were registered in urban areas, including 13,560 males and 13,789 females.
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Over the past decade, the number of registered births in the state stood at 79,539 in 2015, 72,984 in 2016, 69,121 in 2017, 47,357 in 2018, 77,706 in 2019, 46,079 in 2020, 64,988 in 2021, 80,813 in 2022, 65,569 in 2023, and 61,219 in 2024, the report stated.
The number of registered deaths has generally shown an upward trend over the past decade, although it declined in 2024. Registered deaths stood at 2,069 in 2015, 2,137 in 2016, 1,836 in 2017, 828 in 2018, 2,266 in 2019, 2,509 in 2020, 3,780 in 2021, 3,820 in 2022, 3,934 in 2023, and 3,207 in 2024.
Of the 3,207 deaths registered in 2024, 785 were recorded in rural areas and 2,422 in urban areas.
Male deaths outnumbered female deaths in both rural and urban areas. Of the total registered deaths, 2,218 were males and 989 were females.
The age-wise distribution of deaths in 2024 was: under one year (1), 1–4 years (31), 5–14 years (20), 15–24 years (49), 25–34 years (214), 35–44 years (457), 45–54 years (566), 55–64 years (606), 65–69 years (251), 70 years and above (851), while age was not stated in 161 cases.
Only one infant death, involving a male child, was registered in 2024. The corresponding figures for previous years were 2 in 2015, 1 in 2016, 4 in 2017, none in 2018, 8 in 2019, none in 2020, 3 in 2021, 10 in 2022, 6 in 2023, and 1 in 2024.
The report also stated that no stillbirths were registered in Nagaland in 2024.