Vital Statistics

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Vital statistics are numerical records
of
• Births
• Deaths
• Marriage
• Sickness

-by which the health and growth “the

vitality” of a population can be studied
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 Sources of Vital Statistics
• Population censuses
• Civil Marriage registers
• Parish Marriage Registers
• Vital Statistics Registration Systems

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 Sources of Vital Statistics
(contd.)
• Maternity center records
• Hospital and Clinic records
• Morbidity surveys
• Workers absence records
• Sick benefit claims

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 Uses of Vital Statistics
• Administrative Uses
– Birth registration provides legal and documentary
evidence of
• Age
• Birth place
• Nationality
– Birth registration certificates are used to
• determine eligibility of admission to school
• Obtain a passport
• Enter certain fields of employment
• Vote in an election

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 Administrative Uses (contd.)
• Marriage & divorce records
– Certification of status
• Marital status
• Dependency
• Alimony payments
• Tax deduction & benefits
• Provision of Housing
– Divorce record establishes right to remarry

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 Administrative Uses (Contd)
• Death certificate is required;
– Entitlement to family allowances
– Insurance claims
– Care of Children
– Claims on property or inheritance
– Rights to remarry for a surviving spouse

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 Demographic Uses
• Additional data independent of censuses
• Can be used as a check on census enumeration
• Info on sex ratio at birth
• Info on seasonality of births and deaths
• Formulation of family planning services
• Monitoring of family planning services

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 Medical Uses
• Provides info on deaths and causes of death
essential in planning of health services
• Vital Statistics data essential in epidemiological
research on:
– Mortality
– Morbidity

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Vital Statistic Registration Systems

• Continuous registration of
– Births
– Deaths
– Marriages

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Operational collection modes
• Passive system

• Active system

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Passive vital registration collection
system
• Laws are enacted by competent authorities
• Onus is on those with vital events to come
forward to register them

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Advantage of the passive system
• Very cheap to operate

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Disadvantage of the passive system

• Completeness is low at first

• Can take years to attain a reasonable level
of completeness.
– The completeness of a vital statistics
registration system is the percentage of the
events registered out of the total number of
events that actually occurred in the population.

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Active vital registration system
• After enactment of laws, the competent
authorities make additional efforts to collect
data
– Continuous awareness campaigns
– Offer incentives
– Organize regular visits to homes by home
visitors to collect events occurring

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Advantages of the active system
• High level of completeness can be achieved
relatively quickly

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Disadvantage
• Operating costs are relatively high

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Limitations of vital statistics
registration systems
• Completeness of the registration system
– Needs to be evaluated before use of information
from the system
– Varies by type of event
• births: male births more complete
• deaths: infant deaths less complete

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Quality of data from vital statistics
registration systems
• Age misstatements
• imprecision in causes of deaths statements

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 Population Registers
• “an individualized data system, that is, a mechanism of
continuous recording, and/or of coordinated linkage, of
selected information pertaining to each member of the
resident population of a country in such a way to
provide the possibility of determining up-to-date
information concerning the size and characteristics of
that population at selected time intervals” (United
Nations, 1969),
• Employed by advanced countries with highly developed
statistical systems
 Data Requirements of Population Registers
 Regular updated list of all residents in the country,
showing:
- date and place of birth, sex, date of arrival/departure,
citizenship(s) and marital status, date and place of death.
- Additional information : language(s), ethnicity,
educational attainment, parity, activity status and
occupation.
 Characteristics of a population register
• Population register is the product of a continuous
process
• The method and sources of updating should cover all
current changes of the individual characteristics
• Its organization and operation should have a legal basis.
• Every member of the population/family must be
represented by a card
 Uses of the population register
• Primary function: provides reliable information for the
administrative purposes of government, particularly for
programme planning, budgeting and taxation.
• Other uses:
o personal identification, voting, education, military
service, social insurance and welfare, and for police and
court reference
o issuing of documents needed for the admission to schools
and the assignment of residents to health clinics
o to determine up-to-date information about the size and
characteristics of the population at selected points in time