Goa’s births per year down by over 4,000 in just 10 years

Panaji: Over a period of 10 years, the number of births registered in a year in Goa has come down by 4,341. The lowest annual birth number was registered in 2021 at 15,396, a steep decline from 21,667 births registered in 2013, as per the office of the Registrar General of India’s report ‘Vital Statistics of India Based on Civil Registration System 2022’.The report also shows that after the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the deaths registered exceeded the number of registered births for the first time in 2021. The number of births registered during the year was 15,396, while the number of deaths recorded was 18,337. The numbers normalised by 2022 with 17,326 deaths registered against 14,990 births.However, the report confirms what state reports have earlier indicated: while the number of births has dropped by 4,341, the number of deaths registered has gone up by 2,794 over the years in Goa.

This is contributing to a slowdown in Goa’s population growth rate, as indicated earlier by the state’s recent economic survey.Over a period of just five years, Goa’s birth rate saw a dramatic drop from 13.3 per thousand in 2017 to just 9.7 in 2021. The state already has among the lowest fertility rates in the country, at less than two children per woman, which is below the replacement rate, as per the Economic Survey 2023.

The survey also showed that there is an increase in deaths in Goa caused by diseases such as heart ailments, cancers, and diabetes.

Such illnesses were found to form the cause of over 47% of natural deaths in Goa.Previous data from the Registrar General of India already established that Goa is among nine states with a fertility rate below the replacement rate, at 1.7 children born per woman. Though there are other states where fertility rates are even lower, Goa is the only state that has both a low fertility rate and the lowest birth rate in the country.The Registrar General of India’s 2022 report, in the meantime, said that Goa was among 13 states and UTs in the country where more than 90% of the births were registered within the prescribed period of 21 days as per central norms. However, when it came to deaths, the registration in Goa within the prescribed 21 days was not as much and was in the 80-90% bracket.The report also said that though all birth and death records in the state are computerised and “the system is functioning smoothly, effectively and efficiently”, “there is a possibility of damage to the physical birth/death records as the registers containing these records are worn out over the years”.