This is a MD iMAP hosted service layer. Find more information at http://imap.maryland.gov. The Division of Vital Records of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issues certified copies of birth - death - fetal death - and marriage certificates for events that occur in Maryland. The Division also provides divorce verifications. The Division provides information on procedures to follow for registering an adoption - legitimation - or an adjudication of paternity. Maryland Age-Adjusted All-Cause Mortality Rate - 2010-2012. *Age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. Rate per 100 - 000 Feature Service Layer Link: https://mdgeodata.md.gov/imap/rest/services/Health/MD_VitalStatistics/FeatureServer ADDITIONAL LICENSE TERMS: The Spatial Data and the information therein (collectively "the Data") is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind either expressed implied or statutory. The user assumes the entire risk as to quality and performance of the Data. No guarantee of accuracy is granted nor is any responsibility for reliance thereon assumed. In no event shall the State of Maryland be liable for direct indirect incidental consequential or special damages of any kind. The State of Maryland does not accept liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by inaccuracies in the Data or as a result to changes to the Data nor is there responsibility assumed to maintain the Data in any manner or form. The Data can be freely distributed as long as the metadata entry is not modified or deleted. Any data derived from the Data must acknowledge the State of Maryland in the metadata.

This data shows premature deaths (Age under 75), numbers and rates by gender, as 3-year moving-averages.

All-Cause Mortality rates are a summary indicator of population health status. All-cause mortality is related to Life Expectancy, and both may be influenced by health inequalities.

Directly Age-Standardised Rates (DASR) are shown in the data (where numbers are sufficient) so that death rates can be directly compared between areas. The DASR calculation applies Age-specific rates to a Standard (European) population to cancel out possible effects on crude rates due to different age structures among populations, thus enabling direct comparisons of rates.

A limitation on using mortalities as a proxy for prevalence of health conditions is that mortalities may give an incomplete view of health conditions in an area, as ill-health might not lead to premature death.

Data source: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) indicator ID 108. This data is updated annually.

Death rate has been age-adjusted by the 2000 U.S. standard populaton. All-cause mortality is an important measure of community health. All-cause mortality is heavily driven by the social determinants of health, with significant inequities observed by race and ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Black residents have consistently experienced the highest all-cause mortality rate compared to other racial and ethnic groups. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Latino residents also experienced a sharp increase in their all-cause mortality rate compared to White residents, demonstrating a reversal in the previously observed mortality advantage, in which Latino individuals historically had higher life expectancy and lower mortality than White individuals despite having lower socioeconomic status on average. The disproportionately high all-cause mortality rates observed among Black and Latino residents, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, are due to differences in social and economic conditions and opportunities that unfairly place these groups at higher risk of developing and dying from a wide range of health conditions, including COVID-19.For more information about the Community Health Profiles Data Initiative, please see the initiative homepage.

MMWR Surveillance Summary 66 (No. SS-1):1-8 found that nonmetropolitan areas have significant numbers of potentially excess deaths from the five leading causes of death. These figures accompany this report by presenting information on potentially excess deaths in nonmetropolitan and metropolitan areas at the state level. They also add additional years of data and options for selecting different age ranges and benchmarks. Potentially excess deaths are defined in MMWR Surveillance Summary 66(No. SS-1):1-8 as deaths that exceed the numbers that would be expected if the death rates of states with the lowest rates (benchmarks) occurred across all states. They are calculated by subtracting expected deaths for specific benchmarks from observed deaths. Not all potentially excess deaths can be prevented; some areas might have characteristics that predispose them to higher rates of death. However, many potentially excess deaths might represent deaths that could be prevented through improved public health programs that support healthier behaviors and neighborhoods or better access to health care services. Mortality data for U.S. residents come from the National Vital Statistics System. Estimates based on fewer than 10 observed deaths are not shown and shaded yellow on the map. Underlying cause of death is based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10) Heart disease (I00-I09, I11, I13, and I20–I51) Cancer (C00–C97) Unintentional injury (V01–X59 and Y85–Y86) Chronic lower respiratory disease (J40–J47) Stroke (I60–I69) Locality (nonmetropolitan vs. metropolitan) is based on the Office of Management and Budget’s 2013 county-based classification scheme. Benchmarks are based on the three states with the lowest age and cause-specific mortality rates. Potentially excess deaths for each state are calculated by subtracting deaths at the benchmark rates (expected deaths) from observed deaths. Users can explore three benchmarks: “2010 Fixed” is a fixed benchmark based on the best performing States in 2010. “2005 Fixed” is a fixed benchmark based on the best performing States in 2005. “Floating” is based on the best performing States in each year so change from year to year. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES Moy E, Garcia MC, Bastian B, Rossen LM, Ingram DD, Faul M, Massetti GM, Thomas CC, Hong Y, Yoon PW, Iademarco MF. Leading Causes of Death in Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan Areas – United States, 1999-2014. MMWR Surveillance Summary 2017; 66(No. SS-1):1-8. Garcia MC, Faul M, Massetti G, Thomas CC, Hong Y, Bauer UE, Iademarco MF. Reducing Potentially Excess Deaths from the Five Leading Causes of Death in the Rural United States. MMWR Surveillance Summary 2017; 66(No. SS-2):1–7.

Background: In humans, the mortality rate dramatically decreases with age after birth, and the causes of death change significantly during childhood. In the present study, we attempted to explain age-associated decreases in mortality for congenital anomalies of the central nervous system (CACNS), as well as decreases in total mortality with age. We further investigated the age trajectory of mortality in the biologically related category “diseases of the nervous system” (DNS).Methods: The numbers of deaths were extracted from the mortality database of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the following nine countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. Because zero cases could be ascertained over the age of 30 years in a specific age category, the Halley method was used to calculate the mortality rates in all possible calendar years and in all countries combined.Results: Total mortality from the first day of life up to the age of 10 years and mortality due to CACNS within the age interval of [0, 90) years can be represented by an inverse proportion with a single parameter. High coefficients of determination were observed for both total mortality (R2 = 0.996) and CACNS mortality (R2 = 0.990). Our findings indicated that mortality rates for DNS slowly decrease with age during the first 2 years of life, following which they decrease in accordance with an inverse proportion up to the age of 10 years. The theory of congenital individual risk (TCIR) may explain these observations based on the extinction of individuals with more severe impairments, as well as the bent curve of DNS, which exhibited an adjusted coefficient of determination of R¯2 = 0.966.Conclusion: The coincidence between the age trajectories of all-cause and CACNS-related mortality may indicate that the overall decrease in mortality after birth is due to the extinction of individuals with more severe impairments. More deaths unrelated to congenital anomalies may be caused by the manifestation of latent congenital impairments during childhood.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights trends in age-adjusted death rates for five selected major causes of death. Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below). Revisions to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) over time may result in discontinuities in cause-of-death trends. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights the differences in age-adjusted death rates and life expectancy at birth by race and sex. Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below). Life expectancy data are available up to 2017. Due to changes in categories of race used in publications, data are not available for the black population consistently before 1968, and not at all before 1960. More information on historical data on age-adjusted death rates is available at https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/hist293.htm. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

Background: Mortality rate rapidly decreases with age after birth, and, simultaneously, the spectrum of death causes show remarkable changes with age. This study analyzed age-associated decreases in mortality rate from diseases of all main chapters of the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.Methods: The number of deaths was extracted from the mortality database of the World Health Organization. As zero cases could be ascertained for a specific age category, the Halley method was used to calculate the mortality rates in all possible calendar years and in all countries combined.Results: All causes mortality from the 1st day of life to the age of 10 years can be represented by an inverse proportion model with a single parameter. High coefficients of determination were observed for total mortality in all populations (arithmetic mean = 0.9942 and standard deviation = 0.0039).Slower or no mortality decrease with age was detected in the 1st year of life, while the inverse proportion method was valid for the age range [1, 10) years in most of all main chapters with three exceptions. The decrease was faster for the chapter “Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period” (XVI).The inverse proportion was valid already from the 1st day for the chapter “Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities” (XVII).The shape of the mortality decrease was very different for the chapter “Neoplasms” (II) and the rates of mortality from neoplasms were age-independent in the age range [1, 10) years in all populations.Conclusion: The theory of congenital individual risks of death is presented and can explain the results. If it is valid, latent congenital impairments may be present among all cases of death that are not related to congenital impairments. All results are based on published data, and the data are presented as a supplement.

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California as a whole based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to California residents (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in California regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

Background: Mortality rate rapidly decreases with age after birth, and, simultaneously, the spectrum of death causes show remarkable changes with age. This study analyzed age-associated decreases in mortality rate from diseases of all main chapters of the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases.Methods: The number of deaths was extracted from the mortality database of the World Health Organization. As zero cases could be ascertained for a specific age category, the Halley method was used to calculate the mortality rates in all possible calendar years and in all countries combined.Results: All causes mortality from the 1st day of life to the age of 10 years can be represented by an inverse proportion model with a single parameter. High coefficients of determination were observed for total mortality in all populations (arithmetic mean = 0.9942 and standard deviation = 0.0039).Slower or no mortality decrease with age was detected in the 1st year of life, while the inverse proportion method was valid for the age range [1, 10) years in most of all main chapters with three exceptions. The decrease was faster for the chapter “Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period” (XVI).The inverse proportion was valid already from the 1st day for the chapter “Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities” (XVII).The shape of the mortality decrease was very different for the chapter “Neoplasms” (II) and the rates of mortality from neoplasms were age-independent in the age range [1, 10) years in all populations.Conclusion: The theory of congenital individual risks of death is presented and can explain the results. If it is valid, latent congenital impairments may be present among all cases of death that are not related to congenital impairments. All results are based on published data, and the data are presented as a supplement.

This dataset of U.S. mortality trends since 1900 highlights childhood mortality rates by age group for age at death. Age-adjusted death rates (deaths per 100,000) after 1998 are calculated based on the 2000 U.S. standard population. Populations used for computing death rates for 2011–2017 are postcensal estimates based on the 2010 census, estimated as of July 1, 2010. Rates for census years are based on populations enumerated in the corresponding censuses. Rates for noncensus years between 2000 and 2010 are revised using updated intercensal population estimates and may differ from rates previously published. Data on age-adjusted death rates prior to 1999 are taken from historical data (see References below). Age groups for childhood death rates are based on age at death. SOURCES CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, historical data, 1900-1998 (see https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm); CDC/NCHS, National Vital Statistics System, mortality data (see http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm); and CDC WONDER (see http://wonder.cdc.gov). REFERENCES National Center for Health Statistics, Data Warehouse. Comparability of cause-of-death between ICD revisions. 2008. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality/comparability_icd.htm. National Center for Health Statistics. Vital statistics data available. Mortality multiple cause files. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data_access/vitalstatsonline.htm. Kochanek KD, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Arias E. Deaths: Final data for 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 9. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf. Arias E, Xu JQ. United States life tables, 2017. National Vital Statistics Reports; vol 68 no 7. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2019. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_07-508.pdf. National Center for Health Statistics. Historical Data, 1900-1998. 2009. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/mortality_historical_data.htm.

Note: DPH is updating and streamlining the COVID-19 cases, deaths, and testing data. As of 6/27/2022, the data will be published in four tables instead of twelve.

The COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Tests by Day dataset contains cases and test data by date of sample submission. The death data are by date of death. This dataset is updated daily and contains information back to the beginning of the pandemic. The data can be found at https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-Cases-Deaths-and-Tests-by-Day/g9vi-2ahj.

The COVID-19 State Metrics dataset contains over 93 columns of data. This dataset is updated daily and currently contains information starting June 21, 2022 to the present. The data can be found at https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-State-Level-Data/qmgw-5kp6 .

The COVID-19 County Metrics dataset contains 25 columns of data. This dataset is updated daily and currently contains information starting June 16, 2022 to the present. The data can be found at https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-County-Level-Data/ujiq-dy22 .

The COVID-19 Town Metrics dataset contains 16 columns of data. This dataset is updated daily and currently contains information starting June 16, 2022 to the present. The data can be found at https://data.ct.gov/Health-and-Human-Services/COVID-19-Town-Level-Data/icxw-cada . To protect confidentiality, if a town has fewer than 5 cases or positive NAAT tests over the past 7 days, those data will be suppressed.

Count of COVID-19-associated deaths by date of death. Deaths reported to either the OCME or DPH are included in the COVID-19 data. COVID-19-associated deaths include persons who tested positive for COVID-19 around the time of death and persons who were not tested for COVID-19 whose death certificate lists COVID-19 disease as a cause of death or a significant condition contributing to death.

Data on Connecticut deaths were obtained from the Connecticut Deaths Registry maintained by the DPH Office of Vital Records. Cause of death was determined by a death certifier (e.g., physician, APRN, medical examiner) using their best clinical judgment. Additionally, all COVID-19 deaths, including suspected or related, are required to be reported to OCME. On April 4, 2020, CT DPH and OCME released a joint memo to providers and facilities within Connecticut providing guidelines for certifying deaths due to COVID-19 that were consistent with the CDC’s guidelines and a reminder of the required reporting to OCME.25,26 As of July 1, 2021, OCME had reviewed every case reported and performed additional investigation on about one-third of reported deaths to better ascertain if COVID-19 did or did not cause or contribute to the death. Some of these investigations resulted in the OCME performing postmortem swabs for PCR testing on individuals whose deaths were suspected to be due to COVID-19, but antemortem diagnosis was unable to be made.31 The OCME issued or re-issued about 10% of COVID-19 death certificates and, when appropriate, removed COVID-19 from the death certificate. For standardization and tabulation of mortality statistics, written cause of death statements made by the certifiers on death certificates are sent to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the CDC which assigns cause of death codes according to the International Causes of Disease 10th Revision (ICD-10) classification system.25,26 COVID-19 deaths in this report are defined as those for which the death certificate has an ICD-10 code of U07.1 as either a primary (underlying) or a contributing cause of death. More information on COVID-19 mortality can be found at the following link: https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Health-Information-Systems--Reporting/Mortality/Mortality-Statistics

Note the counts in this dataset may vary from the death counts in the other COVID-19-related datasets published on data.ct.gov, where deaths are counted on the date reported rather than the date of death

The WHO mortality data was transformed into a corpus of mortality data in a standard relational database format that allows for easy data mining. The set includes corresponding population data, calculated mortality rates and an ICD-code reference table encompassing all years of ICD registration. The database can be downloaded and imported into a relational database or be combined with other epidemiological or demographic data. The easy of access of these data for researchers may be of great benefit to the research into global trends and causes of death.

Excel workbook of age-standardised baseline mortality rates (BMRs) for each US county by race and ethnicity used for calculating racial-ethnic disparities in health burdens for air pollution from the major oil and gas lifecycle stages in the United States.The workbook includes 3 sheets:BMRs for all-cause mortality in 25+ years population for calculating premature mortality from exposure to fine particular matter (PM2.5).BMRs for all-cause mortality in 65+ years population for calculating premature mortality from exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2), andBMRs for all-ages chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality from exposure to ozone air pollution.Raw BMRs from the US US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research (CDC WONDER) are processed to gap fill data not reported at the county level. This data gap filling is detailed in Vohra et al. (2025) Science Advances, "The health burden and racial-ethnic disparities of air pollution from the major oil and gas lifecycle stages in the United States", doi:10.1126/sciadv.adu2241.

Excess Death excl COVID: Predicted: Total Estimate: Hawaii data was reported at 1,382.000 Number in 16 Sep 2023. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1,382.000 Number for 09 Sep 2023. Excess Death excl COVID: Predicted: Total Estimate: Hawaii data is updated weekly, averaging 1,382.000 Number from Jan 2017 (Median) to 16 Sep 2023, with 350 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,382.000 Number in 16 Sep 2023 and a record low of 1,382.000 Number in 16 Sep 2023. Excess Death excl COVID: Predicted: Total Estimate: Hawaii data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.G012: Number of Excess Deaths: by States: All Causes excluding COVID-19: Predicted (Discontinued).

Every year the CDC releases the country’s most detailed report on death in the United States under the National Vital Statistics Systems. This mortality dataset is a record of every death in the country for 2005 through 2015, including detailed information about causes of death and the demographic background of the deceased.

It's been said that "statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off." This is especially true with this dataset. Each death record represents somebody's loved one, often connected with a lifetime of memories and sometimes tragically too short.

Putting the sensitive nature of the topic aside, analyzing mortality data is essential to understanding the complex circumstances of death across the country. The US Government uses this data to determine life expectancy and understand how death in the U.S. differs from the rest of the world. Whether you’re looking for macro trends or analyzing unique circumstances, we challenge you to use this dataset to find your own answers to one of life’s great mysteries.

Overview

This dataset is a collection of CSV files each containing one year's worth of data and paired JSON files containing the code mappings, plus an ICD 10 code set. The CSVs were reformatted from their original fixed-width file formats using information extracted from the CDC's PDF manuals using this script. Please note that this process may have introduced errors as the text extracted from the pdf is not a perfect match. If you have any questions or find errors in the preparation process, please leave a note in the forums. We hope to publish additional years of data using this method soon.

A more detailed overview of the data can be found here. You'll find that the fields are consistent within this time window, but some of data codes change every few years. For example, the 113_cause_recode entry 069 only covers ICD codes (I10,I12) in 2005, but by 2015 it covers (I10,I12,I15). When I post data from years prior to 2005, expect some of the fields themselves to change as well.

All data comes from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics Systems, with the exception of the Icd10Code, which are sourced from the World Health Organization.

Project ideas

• The CDC's mortality data was the basis of a widely publicized paper, by Anne Case and Nobel prize winner Angus Deaton, arguing that middle-aged whites are dying at elevated rates. One of the criticisms against the paper is that it failed to properly account for the exact ages within the broad bins available through the CDC's WONDER tool. What do these results look like with exact/not-binned age data?
• Similarly, how sensitive are the mortality trends being discussed in the news to the choice of bin-widths?
• As noted above, the data preparation process could have introduced errors. Can you find any discrepancies compared to the aggregate metrics on WONDER? If so, please let me know in the forums!
• WONDER is cited in numerous economics, sociology, and public health research papers. Can you find any papers whose conclusions would be altered if they used the exact data available here rather than binned data from Wonder?

Differences from the first version of the dataset

• This version of the dataset was prepared in a completely different many. This has allowed us to provide a much larger volume of data and ensure that codes are available for every field.
• We've replaced the batch of sql files with a single JSON per year. Kaggle's platform currently offer's better support for JSON files, and this keeps the number of files manageable.
• A tutorial kernel providing a quick introduction to the new format is available here.
• Lastly, I apologize if the transition has interrupted anyone's work! If need be, you can still download v1.

Abstract

Cause of death data based on VA interviews were contributed by fourteen INDEPTH HDSS sites in sub-Saharan Africa and eight sites in Asia. The principles of the Network and its constituent population surveillance sites have been described elsewhere [1]. Each HDSS site is committed to long-term longitudinal surveillance of circumscribed populations, typically each covering around 50,000 to 100,000 people. Households are registered and visited regularly by lay field-workers, with a frequency varying from once per year to several times per year. All vital events are registered at each such visit, and any deaths recorded are followed up with verbal autopsy interviews, usually 147 undertaken by specially trained lay interviewers. A few sites were already operational in the 1990s, but in this dataset 95% of the person-time observed related to the period from 2000 onwards, with 58% from 2007 onwards. Two sites, in Nairobi and Ouagadougou, followed urban populations, while the remainder covered areas that were generally more rural in character, although some included local urban centres. Sites covered entire populations, although the Karonga, Malawi, site only contributed VAs for deaths of people aged 12 years and older. Because the sites were not located or designed in a systematic way to be representative of national or regional populations, it is not meaningful to aggregate results over sites.

All cause of death assignments in this dataset were made using the InterVA-4 model version 4.02 [2]. InterVA-4 uses probabilistic modelling to arrive at likely cause(s) of death for each VA case, the workings of the model being based on a combination of expert medical opinion and relevant available data. InterVA-4 is the only model currently available that processes VA data according to the WHO 2012 standard and categorises causes of death according to ICD-10. Since the VA data reported here were collected before the WHO 2012 standard was formulated, they were all retrospectively transformed into the WHO 2012 and InterVA-4 input format for processing.

The InterVA-4 model was applied to the data from each site, yielding, for each case, up to three possible causes of death or an indeterminate result. Each cause for a case is a single record in the dataset. In a minority of cases, for example where symptoms were vague, contradictory or mutually inconsistent, it was impossible for InterVA-4 to determine a cause of death, and these deaths were attributed as entirely indeterminate. For the remaining cases, one to three likely causes and their likelihoods were assigned by InterVA-4, and if the sum of their likelihoods was less than one, the residual component was then assigned as being indeterminate. This was an important process for capturing uncertainty in cause of death outcome(s) from the model at the individual level, thus avoiding over-interpretation of specific causes. As a consequence there were three sources of unattributed cause of death: deaths registered for which VAs were not successfully completed; VAs completed but where the cause was entirely indeterminate; and residual components of deaths attributed as indeterminate.

In this dataset each case has between one and four records, each with its own cause and likelihood. Cases for which VAs were not successfully completed has a single record with the cause of death recorded as “VA not completed” and a likelihood of one. Thus the overall sum of the likelihoods equated to the total number of deaths. Each record also contains a population weighting factor reflecting the ratio of the population fraction for its site, age group, sex and year to the corresponding age group and sex fraction in the standard population (see section on weighting).

In this context, all of these data are secondary datasets derived from primary data collected separately by each participating site. In all cases the primary data collection was covered by site-level ethical approvals relating to on-going demographic surveillance in those specific locations. No individual identity or household location data are included in this secondary data.

1. Sankoh O, Byass P. The INDEPTH Network: filling vital gaps in global epidemiology. International Journal of Epidemiology 2012; 41:579-588.

2. Byass P, Chandramohan D, Clark SJ, D’Ambruoso L, Fottrell E, Graham WJ, et al. Strengthening standardised interpretation of verbal autopsy data: the new InterVA-4 tool. Global Health Action 2012; 5:19281.

Geographic coverage

Demographic surveiallance areas (countries from Africa, Asia and Oceania) of the following HDSSs:

Code  Country    INDEPTH Centre

BD011 Bangladesh   ICDDR-B : Matlab

BD012 Bangladesh   ICDDR-B : Bandarban

BD013 Bangladesh   ICDDR-B : Chakaria

BD014 Bangladesh   ICDDR-B : AMK 
BF031 Burkina Faso  Nouna 
BF041 Burkina Faso  Ouagadougou

CI011 Côte d'Ivoire Taabo 
ET031 Ethiopia    Kilite Awlaelo

GH011 Ghana     Navrongo

GH031 Ghana     Dodowa

GM011 The Gambia   Farafenni 
ID011 Indonesia   Purworejo 
IN011 India     Ballabgarh

IN021 India     Vadu

KE011 Kenya     Kilifi

KE021 Kenya     Kisumu

KE031 Kenya     Nairobi

MW011 Malawi     Karonga

SN011 Senegal    IRD : Bandafassi 
VN012 Vietnam    Hanoi Medical University : Filabavi

ZA011 South Africa  Agincourt 
ZA031 South Africa  Africa Centre 

Analysis unit

Death Cause

Universe

Surveillance population Deceased individuals Cause of death

Kind of data

Verbal autopsy-based cause of death data

Frequency of data collection

Rounds per year varies between sites from once to three times per year

Sampling procedure

No sampling, covers total population in demographic surveillance area

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The Verbal Autopsy Questionnaires used by the various sites differed, but in most cases they were a derivation from the original WHO Verbal Autopsy questionnaire.

http://www.who.int/healthinfo/statistics/verbalautopsystandards/en/index1.html

Cleaning operations

One cause of death record was inserted for every death where a verbal autopsy was not conducted. The cuase of death assigned in these cases is "XX VA not completed"

Age-adjustment mortality rates are rates of deaths that are computed using a statistical method to create a metric based on the true death rate so that it can be compared over time for a single population (i.e. comparing 2006-2008 to 2010-2012), as well as enable comparisons across different populations with possibly different age distributions in their populations (i.e. comparing Hispanic residents to Asian residents). Age adjustment methods applied to Montgomery County rates are consistent with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as well as Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Vital Statistics Administration (DHMH VSA). PHS Planning and Epidemiology receives an annual data file of Montgomery County resident deaths registered with Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Vital Statistics Administration (DHMH VSA). Using SAS analytic software, MCDHHS standardizes, aggregates, and calculates age-adjusted rates for each of the leading causes of death category consistent with state and national methods and by subgroups based on age, gender, race, and ethnicity combinations. Data are released in compliance with Data Use Agreements between DHMH VSA and MCDHHS. This dataset will be updated Annually.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The dataset was originally created to allow the construction of age-specific mortality series and cohort mortality series for particular diseases, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present (in conjunction with the comparable mortality database created by the Office of National Statistics which covers 1901 – present). The dataset is fairly comprehensive and therefore allows both fine analysis of trends in single causes and also the construction of consistent aggregated categories of causes over time. Additionally, comparison of trends in individual causes can be used to infer transfers of deaths between categories over time, that may cause artifactual changes in mortality rates of particular causes. The data are presented by sex, allowing calculation of sex ratios. The age-specific and annual nature of the dataset allows the analysis of cause-specific mortality by birth cohort (assuming low migration at the national level). The database can be used in conjunction with the ONS database “Historic Mortality and Population Data, 1901-1992”, already in the UK Data Archive collection as SN 2902, to create continuous cause-of-death series for the period 1848-1992 (or later, if using more recent versions of the ONS database).

Number of deaths and mortality rates, by age group, sex, and place of residence, 1991 to most recent year.