More males than females were born in the country in 2018, according to a government survey.
But male deaths were higher than those of females in the same period, the 2019 Economic Survey says.
A total of 1,135,378 births were registered with 51.2 per cent of them being males.
The registered deaths were 187,655. Out of this figure, 55.5 per cent was males.
The report states that "94.5 per cent of births registered was at a health facility and 5.5 per cent at home while 58.7 per cent of deaths registered was at a health facility and 41.3 per cent at home."
Normal deliveries stood at 84.8 per cent. "During the same period, slightly over 14 per cent of the deliveries were through caesarean section," the survey states.
The number of infants vaccinated was low, it says, blaming this on strikes in the health sector in the period under review.
"There was an increase in pentavalent vaccine uptake by 18.1 per cent from 1 million in 2017 to 1.2 million in 2018."
Respiratory diseases and malaria were the leading causes of death in 2018. The total disease cases reported increased by 31.2 per cent from 42.3 million in 2017 to 55.5 million in 2018.
