Previous Year Question

Crude Birth Rate (CBR) is the number of live births occurring in a given year per 1,000 population. According to the official definition of the Government of India's MoSPI, CBR is defined as the “number of live births per thousand population.” The Sample Registration System (SRS) material of the Census of India also measures the Birth Rate as the number of live births per 1,000 population in a year.

It is called “Crude” because the calculation uses the total population as the denominator and does not separately adjust for the population's age and sex structure. For this reason, CBR is a simple or crude measure of the fertility of a population. The Census of India's SRS Bulletin also describes the Birth Rate as a crude measure of population fertility.

It should not be confused with the General Fertility Rate (GFR) or the Total Fertility Rate (TFR). CBR uses the entire population as its base, whereas fertility indicators measure women in reproductive age groups and childbearing patterns more specifically.