Over the years, scholars and researchers have long been interested in demographic studies and census as they are of great concern to countries due to the help they supply to plan future development projects.

Entering such civil status events as birth, death, marriage and divorce on records in centers or institutions established specifically for that reason is one of the major sources of information and statistics about the population. This includes the individuals’ personal information such as their place of origin, where they live (residence), marital status, number of people in the family, and their educational, economical and social level. It also includes information about birth and death events, immigration, and human resources distribution among government sectors in the same country.

The history of the civil registration dates back to the late 16th century AD when Italy began to register civil events like births and marriages for its population. Then Britain implemented this system and registered civil events of birth and marriage, and established what they called a ‘Center of Family Register’ around 1837 AD. Later, Finland followed and established the ‘Population Registration Center’ where they entered information related to the population, housing and addresses.

The civil registration concept has then gradually evolved to cover such events as birth, marriage, divorce, death and nationality. At the beginning of the 20th century, the civil registration became an essential comprehensive source of civil information to rely on in following up the social and demographic development as well as planning development projects.

Among the Asian countries that have implemented the Civil Status System are Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia. Some Arab countries, Egypt, Algeria and Tunis among them, began to implement this system at the beginning of last century.