Registration as a source of population information

• Most governments, and the Zimbabwean government is no exception, require that its citizens register themselves with various government departments.
• Primarily these registrations are with the office of the Registrar General.
• Population statistics can also be obtained from government and non-governmental institutions that maintain records on various population characteristics as part of their day to day activities.
• For example records such as:
• Birth certificates
• Death certificates
• Passports and passport applications as well as emergency travel documents (ETDs)
• Marriage certificates
• Customs documents
• Hospital and clinic cards
• Church records such as baptismal and confirmation certificates
• Welfare records
• Court records
• School records and so on.
• In Zimbabwe it is a legal requirement for a person to have a birth certificate, and when they turn 16 a national Identity document bearing the holder’s photo and fingerprints and upon death a person’s death certificate.
• Registration data such as the above mentioned can be combined with census data to gain deeper insights, make predictions and estimations during the inter-census years
• In developing countries such as Zimbabwe the data may sometimes missing or incomplete although the registration processes are being perfected all the time.
• Also since registration data is collected for other purposes it might be not be suitable, misleading as well as difficult to analyse.

To access more topics go to the Geography Notes page.