Civil registration is the system by which a
government records the vital events of its
citizens and
residents. The resulting repository or
database is called
civil register, and the office responsible for receiving registrations is often called the
registrar,
registry, or
population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create a legal
document that can be used to establish and protect the
rights of individuals. A secondary purpose is to create a data source for the compilation of
vital statistics. In most countries, there is a legal requirement to notify the relevant authority of certain life events, such as births, marriages and death. The first country to establish a nationwide population register was
Sweden in 1631, which was organized by the
Church of Sweden but on the demand of
The Crown.