Definition
BIRTHREG_ALL (M59_x) indicates whether the child's birth was registered with the state.
The related variable BIRTHCERT_ALL indicates whether the child has a birth certificate.
BIRTHREG_ALL consists of a set of up to six separate variables, covering the most recent birth (BIRTHREG_01) up to the sixth-most-recent birth (i.e., BIRTHREG_02, BIRTHREG_03, BIRTHREG_04, BIRTHREG_05, and BIRTHREG_06) during the reference period prior to the survey. If BIRTHREG_ALL is included in a data extract, all these separate variables are included in a researcher's data file.
For most surveys, information for this variable was collected on all births, up to a maximum of six, in the reference period; exceptions in which data were collected on only the most recent birth(s) are noted in the comparability section. In many cases, data were hypothetically collected on up to six births, but no women in the survey had so many births (e.g., no woman had 4 or more births in 3 years, or had 5 or 6 births in 5 years). If, for example, no woman in a survey had 6 births in five years and only blank values were included in the original DHS file, then BIRTHREG_06 would not be available for that survey in IPUMS-DHS. Surveys in which the data were collected for only the most recent births are noted in the comparability section.
