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Health Sector Statistics
Table below presents information on live births registration completeness by sex of the child. Nationally, there were slightly more
male births registered than female births between 2017 and 2021. Male registered births accounted for 51.0 per cent of births
compared to 49.0 per cent for females in 2021. The sex ratio (males per 100 females) increased from 104.0 in 2020 to 104.2 in
2021.
Registered Births by Sex, 2017 – 2021
Year Male Female Total (Number) Sex Ratio
(Males Per 100 Females)
Number Per cent Number Per cent
2017 472,569 51.2 450,918 48.8 923,487 104.8
2018 582,895 51.2 555,759 48.8 1,138,654 104.9
2019 603,774 50.9 582,370 49.1 1,186,144 103.2
2020 575,657 51.1 551,105 48.9 1,126,762 104.0
2021 612,097 51.0 588,093 49.0 1,200,190 104.2
Source: Civil Registration Services
Table below presents births by age of the mother for the period 2017 to 2021. Early initiation of childbearing has
a direct association with the level of fertility in a population. Women aged 20 – 24 years accounted for the highest
proportion of registered births across all the ages followed by women aged 25-29 years in 2021 at 29.4 per cent
and 25.1 per cent, respectively in 2021. Adolescents aged 15-19 years accounted for 12.3 per cent of the
registered births in the same period.
Registered Births by Age of the Mother, 2017 – 2021
Age of Mother 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021*
<15 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.3
15-19 11.7 11.8 11.8 11.0 12.3
20-24 29.8 29.0 29.9 30.4 29.4
25-29 27.3 26.4 25.4 25.3 25.1
30-34 17.6 18.5 18.2 18.7 17.5
35-39 8.3 8.9 8.2 8.6 8.6
40-44 2.1 2.4 2.4 2.3 2.1
45+ 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2
Age not stated 2.3 2.2 3.6 3.2 4.5
Total 100 100 100 100 100
Source: Civil Registration Services
Registered births by marital status of the mother are shown in Table below from 2017 to 2021. Marriage is one of the
most important proximate determinants of fertility because it is an indicator of a woman’s exposure to pregnancy. Ma-
jority of births were registered among married women (85.9 %) compared to single women (13.5%). The proportion
of live birth registration completeness for divorced and widowed women was 0.2 per cent. Widowed and Divorced
women accounted for 0.1 and 0.4 per cent of the births respectively, in 2021
56 Kenya Medical Directory