Civil records

Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events (births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database has different names in different countries and even in different US states. It can be called a civil registry ,civil register (but this is also an official term for an individual file of a vital event),vital records, and other terms, and the office responsible for receiving the registrations can be called a bureau of vital statistics, registry of vital records and statistics,registrar, registry, register, registry office (officially register office ), or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create a legal document that can be used to establish and protect the rights of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of vital statistics. In most countries, there is a legal requirement to notify the relevant authority of certain life events, such as births, marriages and death. The first country to establish a nationwide population register was France in 1539, using the Catholic Church registers, Sweden followed in 1631, which was organized by the Church of Sweden on the demand of the Swedish king.

The United Nations defines civil registration as "the continuous, permanent, compulsory and universal recording of the occurrence and characteristics of vital events pertaining to the population as provided through decree or regulation in accordance with the legal requirements of a country. Civil registration is carried out primarily for the purpose of establishing the legal documents required by law. These records are also a main source of vital statistics. Complete coverage, accuracy and timeliness of civil registration are essential to ensure the quality of vital statistics."

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