In an era where data drives decision-making, the lack of complete and accurate death registration—especially when disaggregated by sex—poses a silent but significant threat to public health, equity, and accountability. Across Asia and the Pacific, millions of deaths go unrecorded each year, with female deaths disproportionately affected. This gap not only obscures the true burden of mortality but also reflects deeper societal inequities that hinder progress toward inclusive and evidence -based development.

This new Stats Brief published by ESCAP seeks to deepen understanding of death registration completeness—with a specific focus on gender disparities—across countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The objectives include exploring variations in death registration by sex at the country level, quantifying and comparing the extent of these disparities with other countries within the same subregion. In addition, the study contributes to the existing literature by examining nuanced aspects, specifically examining sex differentials in the registration of deaths occurring at various intervals after the occurrence of event. Given that information on the sex of the deceased is missing in many countries, the paper attempts to investigate whether the absence of sex information in death records is associated with observed disparities in death registration completeness.