Neonatal mortality rate, India

Deaths of infants in the first 28 days of life (under 29 days) per 1,000 live births in the period.

Numerator

Deaths under 29 days of age in the SRS sample

Denominator

Live births in the SRS sample

Methodology

The Sample Registration System (SRS) is ORGI's large-scale demographic survey: in about 8,800 randomly selected villages and urban blocks (8,839 sample units covering about 9.0 million people in 2024, roughly 0.6% of the population) a resident part-time enumerator records births and deaths continuously, and an independent supervisor conducts a retrospective half-yearly survey. The two records are matched and unmatched events re-verified in the field (dual record system), which makes SRS India's reference source for vital rates at state level, since civil registration remains incomplete in several states. The sample is redrawn after each census; the frame in use from reference year 2014 is based on Census 2011. Source: SRS Statistical Report for the reference year, Statement 48 ('Neo-natal Mortality Rate and Percentage Share of Neo-natal Deaths to Infant Deaths by Residence'), Total column, for India and the 22 bigger States/UTs (population above 10 million at Census 2011, plus Himachal Pradesh). Each value is taken from the report for its own year, not from later reports' trend tables. IHO stores the total (rural and urban combined) for V1; SRS also publishes rural and urban figures, and for some rates figures by sex, which are not yet stored. Himachal Pradesh's NMR is printed as a three-year pooled value from the 2017 report (2015–17) onwards and is stored under that three-year period. The 2014–2016 reports printed single-year values for it; IHO does not store those, so Himachal Pradesh's series is three-year throughout.

Caveats

NMR is a subset of infant mortality (in 2024 about 73% of infant deaths in India were neonatal). Values are whole numbers per 1,000, so small States move in steps. Smaller States and UTs other than Himachal Pradesh have no NMR estimate. Reference years 2020–2021 cover the COVID-19 pandemic: deaths rose sharply in 2021 (India's crude death rate was 7.5 against 6.0 in 2020), and fieldwork was disrupted.

Comparability

Comparable over time for India and the bigger States. Himachal Pradesh's three-year values have no same-period India figure, so it is left out of State-versus-India comparisons. Jammu & Kashmir before reference year 2020 is the undivided State, which included what is now Ladakh (the 2018 and 2019 Bulletins print it as 'Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh'); from 2020 SRS reports the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and of Ladakh separately, and IHO stores both periods under Jammu and Kashmir, so its series has a boundary break at 2020. Telangana was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014; SRS reports them separately from reference year 2014, so Andhra Pradesh figures are for the residuary State throughout.