Vital statistics are a record of the most basic human events, including birth, marriage, divorce, sickness, and death. They indicate some of the changes occurring in the population of a country, state or province, or local community. They are gathered from birth and death certificates, marriage licenses and divorce records, disease reports, and other official records. Government officials collect reports of the individual events, tabulate and analyze them, and publish vital statistics reports.
Using vital statistics.
Business people, government workers, social scientists, and others use vital statistics for many purposes. Total numbers of births, marriages, divorces, illnesses of a specific type, and deaths that occur during a period of time are useful statistics. For example, local governments use census data to help them decide where to build new schools, how to draw school district boundaries, and how many teachers to hire. In addition, public health agencies study the number of cases of certain diseases to plan immunization and prevention campaigns.
The rate at which events happen is often more informative than the total number of events. A crude rate is the number of events happening during a period of time, measured in proportion to the size of the total population. For example, the crude birth rate in the United States in the early 2020’s was about 11 births for every 1,000 people. The rate was about 7 in Japan, 10 in Canada, and 37 in Nigeria.
Another kind of rate, called a specific rate, is the number of events in a certain part of the population. The part may be defined according to such factors as age, gender, and ethnicity. Statisticians often combine information from vital statistics and other sources to come up with specific rates. For example, they may use death certificates, census data, and special sample surveys to determine the specific rate for lung cancer deaths among white female cigarette smokers between the ages of 45 and 64.
Collecting and publishing vital statistics.
In the United States, state laws regulate registration of most vital events. Physicians or hospital attendants file birth certificates with local registrars (official recorders). Physicians or coroners return death certificates to funeral directors, who file them with local registrars. The local registrars send birth and death certificates to a county or state registrar. After a marriage ceremony, the presiding official sends the record certifying the marriage to the license clerk. The licensing office then sends the record to the state registrar. Attorneys file divorce records with the clerk of the court that grants the divorce. The court clerk reports the divorce to the state registrar. Doctors must report certain diseases to local or state health departments.
Vital statistics are tabulated at the state and federal levels. The national Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics tabulates, analyzes, and publishes national data. The center is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
In Canada, vital statistics are collected by Statistics Canada, an agency of the federal government. In other countries, police departments, churches, government offices, or other agencies may be responsible for collecting and keeping vital records. The statistics are then tabulated and published at the national level.
