Counting births and deaths

This Lancet Series, which reviews progress since the seminal 2007 series Who counts, describes the growing momentum for civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in countries and in the global health and development community more broadly, stimulated by the need to monitor progress and accountability for the Sustainable Development Goals post 2015 era. The four papers summarise the need for better empirical data on births and deaths, describe bottlenecks to progress and how they are being overcome, and identify drivers for change and opportunities to sustain progress. They show, using a composite metric, evidence of some progress in vital statistics systems, identify the interventions that work to strengthen CRVS systems and the organizational, political and leadership ingredients for success.