More Saudi girls than boys born in 2011

Twelve thousand more Saudi girls than boys were born in 2011, the latest statistics of the Civil Status department showed.
“Out of a total of 510,000 registered Saudi births, 261,000 were girls, accounting for 51.18 percent. The remaining 249,000 boys accounted for 48.82 percent of the total births in 2011,” the report said.
The annual birth rate of 2.3 percent brought the total Saudi population to over 19 million, Asharq Al-Awsat daily reported yesterday.
The child mortality rate below the age of five came down to one in every 1,000 children in 2011 while the global rate was 58 children for every 1,000.
Life expectancy in the Kingdom has reached 73.9 years, while it was 53.9 in 1975. The current global average lifespan is 69.8 years.
Undersecretary for Civil Status at the Ministry of Interior Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Al-Feda said efforts are under way to digitize all official formalities and documents related to birth registration.
“A joint committee comprising officials of the Civil Status department, the Ministry of Health and the National Information Center continues its efforts to put in place the framework for the online registration of births.
This includes the online transfer of details of newborn babies from all hospitals in the Kingdom to the Civil Status department,” Al-Feda said.
“However, the Civil Status will continue its routine investigations into birth reports sent from hospitals before issuing birth certificates,” he said. The baby’s name will be added to the family register only after inspections.
The completion of the digitization will take some time. All hospitals in the Kingdom have to be linked to the offices of the Civil Status.
The 2012 census put the Saudi population at 19,838,448 people out of a total population of 29,195,895 including expatriates.