It is of utmost importance that all registrations take effect in a timely manner, as this aids the agency and ultimately policy makers in social, educational and health planning for the country.

The agency has continually advised the public to ensure that registration of a vital event, be it birth or death, happens immediately or within three months after such occurrence.  However, registration can be effected up to twelve months outside of this time limit and still would be regarded as on being on time. Once twelve months have elapsed such a registration would be deemed “late” and can only be effected upon the Registrar General issuing an “Authority for Late Registration” to the Local District Registrar.

Table 6 gives a breakdown of 2004 live birth occurrences illustrating those registered in the same month of occurrence and the delay in registration which appears in categories of up to three months and over three months up to twelve months.  Of the 42,448 births which occurred, 16,903 or 39.8% were registered within the same month.  This indicates that same month registrations were on par with 2003 which had 17,292 or 39.8%.

The delay in registrations under one year but over three months indicates an improvement of 9.1% as there were 2,810 or 6.6% such registrations compared to 6,809 or 15.7 % in 2003.  Such prompt response in registration can be attributed to the fact that 98.1% of live births for this current year occurred in institutions. As a result the local district registrars upon receiving the notification of birth would begin the registration process. This is the first year we have experienced such low percentage delay since the 1995 publication.

Examination of the percentage delay on a parish level reveals that St. Catherine has been recording the highest delay since 2001.  In 2004, St. Catherine recorded 37.2% of its live births as percentage delay for over three months and under one year.  Though this is a slight decline of 3.1% down from the previous year’s delay of 40.3%, this is nonetheless unfavourable considering that 93.8% of its live births occurred in institutions.  Next in line in respect of delays were the parishes of Clarendon with 7.4%, St. James with 6.1% and St. Elizabeth with 2.7%

There were parishes however, which were very prompt in there recording and experienced delay of less than one per cent: St. Andrew, St. Mary and Hanover each had 0.8% delay; St. Thomas and Portland each 0.6% and Westmoreland with the lowest recording of 0.1%.  Overall, congratulations are in order to the stakeholders for this great level of improvement as this is the lowest delay in registrations recorded since the 1995 publication.  It is anticipated that all parishes realise a delay of less than 1% for registrations over three months and over one year.

(Table 6)

TABLE 6: LIVE BIRTHS OCCURING IN 2004 BY PARISH AND SHOWING TIME OF REGISTRATION

Table 6a, a table which first originated in the 2000 report provides very useful information for analysis of time of registration.  Of the 45,980 live birth registrations in 2004, 36,753 or 79.9% occurred in the same year of registration an increase of 2% over 2003.  The parishes of St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Portland and Westmoreland had over 90% of their live births which were registered in the same year of occurrence. However, on average those registered in 2004, but occurred in 2003 accounted for 14.1% of all live births.

(Table 6a)

TABLE 6a: LIVE BIRTHS REGISTERED IN 2004 SHOWING LATE REGISTRATIONS BY PARISH

In Table 6b, the year’s registrations are categorised by the time span between the date of occurrence and the date of registration. So for all the live births registered in 2004, those “within one year of occurrence” or “on time registrations” as the name suggests, are those live births that were registered no later than one year after the occurrence of the event. “Late registrations” are those that were registered later than one year of occurrence of the live birth. For 2004, it is observed that 43,125 or 93.7% of the 45,980 live births registered in 2004 were “on time” or registered within one year of the occurrence of the vital event.

(Table 6b)

TABLE 6b: LIVE BIRTHS REGISTERED IN 2004 SHOWING LATE REGISTRATIONS BY PARISH