Economic analysis of producing vital statistics using civil registration data in Lao People's Democratic Republic

The government of Lao People's Democratic Republic (PDR) is currently in the preparation stage of a 5-year project that will establish an electronic civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system. The authors of this paper adapted a framework for economic analysis developed by Jimenez-Soto et al. (Jimenez-Soto et al., PLoS ONE 9(8): e106234, 2014) to assess the cost-effectiveness of producing vital statistics in Lao PDR using data from a complete electronic CRVS system, compared to using data from other sources, such as the 2015 Population and Housing Census and the 2017 Lao Social Indicator Survey (LSIS). Of 20 types of vital statistics (including birth statistics, fertility rates, and death statistics), a complete and accurate CRVS system can produce all 20 of these vital statistics, while the 2015 Census can produce 17, and the 2017 LSIS and the current civil registration system can produce 4 each. A cost-effectiveness analysis of different data sources for producing vital statistics over a 20-year projection showed that a complete and accurate CRVS system ranked best, followed by population census and population-based survey. In addition to enabling vital statistics to be produced cost-effectively, a robust civil registration system would also support improving the efficiency of public service delivery, leading to further cost savings for the country.