Context
The project responds to a structural need of the Civil Registry (CR): modernising processes based on physical documents, paper dependency, and information distributed across thousands of historical volumes. Before digitalisation, citizens had to travel for essential procedures; retrieving information was slow, documents risked deterioration, and there was no traceability or digital access.
The transformation of the CR is grounded in a solid legal framework, based on Law 20/2011, which establishes a single nationwide electronic registry prioritising each individual’s life record. The MPJRC has implemented the modernisation process through the Digital Civil Registry (DICIREG) system.
Between 2023 and 2025, the Ministry has executed a strategic plan that enabled the incorporation of more than 50 000 physical volumes into a centralised digital system, with over 15 million birth, marriage, and death registrations recorded since 1950. The project strengthens document preservation and improves digital access for citizens. Digitalisation of handwritten books is currently estimated at 50%.
Objectives
The project aims to ensure that citizens and public administrations can access CR entries digitally and immediately, reducing the travel and administrative burden. It seeks to ensure long-term preservation of documents through full digitisation, improving data quality and reliability, unifying processes, speeding up procedures, and enabling interoperability with key services such as identity document issuance. It also aims to create a homogeneous, accessible, secure, user-centred service model for all CR offices nationwide.
The main goal of digitalisation is to streamline the search for entries and the issuance of certificates, improving efficiency and user experience by eliminating the need to consult physical books.
Implementation
Implementation was structured in phases: preparation, mass digitisation, quality control, advanced traceability, validation, and uploading to official systems. Technologies used included overhead scanners, automatic algorithms, blind double entry, and real-time traceability.
This is a large-scale project where communication and collaboration with autonomous communities, offices, and institutional actors have been essential.
The project was funded with NextGeneration EU resources.
The Ministry digitised the books of CR offices belonging to 180 judicial districts across 1373 municipalities in 10 autonomous communities, totalling more than 25 000 volumes.
Additionally, several autonomous communities with devolved justice competences digitised 34 900 volumes with EU funding between 2023 and 2025.
This digitalisation of over 50 000 volumes increased the Digital Archive, already containing more than 70 million digital images, by over 15 million additional entries.