Proposals for Principles and Recommendations
for a Vital Statistics System, Rev. 3
Part One, Chapter 2
United Nations Statistics Division
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Outline of the presentation
- Introduce each section and contents
- What is new and what is revised? Reasons?
- Points for discussion
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Proposed sections in the chapter
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
Definition of vital statistics system
Priority in data collection
Principles for the collection and compilation of vital statistics
Designation of responsibilities, organizational structure of a
national vital statistics system
Integration and coordination in the vital statistics system
Topics and themes to be covered in a vital statistics system
Operational principles for compiling and processing vital
statistics
Presentation of results and data dissemination
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Proposed changes from Rev. 2
•
Overall:
–
•
Covers all possible sources to generate vital statistics, not only focusing
on civil registration-based vital statistics
More specific changes
–
–
–
–
–
Definition of a vital statistics system is incorporated - Section A
Quality control - a new principle for the collection and compilation of vital
statistics - Section C
More elaborated discussion is presented on the advantages and
disadvantages of the three major alternatives in administering the vital
statistics programmes - Section D
Topics and themes that can be collected in censuses and in single-round
retrospective surveys to estimate fertility, mortality and nuptiality are
incorporated - Section F.
A new subsection - protection against disclosures in statistical
presentations – is added while discussing presentation of results and
data dissemination - Section H
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Basis of the proposed revisions
• Internal reviews
• Feedbacks from users of the Principles and
Recommendations for a Vital Statistics System, Rev. 2
– Communications with countries/experts
– Regional workshops
– Responses to the concept note
• National experiences gained in the last 10 years
**********************************************
• Additional revisions will be incorporated based on
discussions from this EGM
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section A
• Definition of a vital statistics system (no change)
– A vital statistics system is defined as the total process of (a)
collecting information by civil registration or enumeration on the
frequency of occurrence of specified and defined vital events, as
well as relevant characteristics of the events themselves and of
the person or persons concerned, and (b) compiling, processing,
analyzing, evaluating, presenting and disseminating these data
in statistical form. The vital events of interest are: live births,
adoptions, legitimations, recognitions; deaths and foetal deaths;
and marriages, divorces, separations and annulments of
marriage
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section A (Cont.)
Civil registration
Population census
Sources of vital
Samples surveys
statistics
Sample registration
Health services
Administrative
records
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section B – Priority in data collection
In the following order (civil registration):
• live births and deaths
• foetal deaths
• Marriages and divorces
Population growth and key health indicators
Perinatal mortality and pregnancy
outcomes
• Others
Censuses and surveys:
• Live births and deaths
• Marriages
• Divorces
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section C - Principles for the collection
and compilation of vital statistics
Covered in the Rev. 2:
• Universal coverage
• Continuity
• Confidentiality
• Regular dissemination
Propose to add:
• Quality control
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section C - Principles for the collection
and compilation of vital statistics (cont.)
Universal coverage
• Covering all vital events occurring in every
geographic area and in every population group
Continuity
• Data need to reflect short-term fluctuations,
including seasonal movements, as well as longerterm movements
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section C - Principles for the collection
and compilation of vital statistics (cont.)
Confidentiality
• Personal information safeguarded
• Widest possible use of data but with provisions on
confidentiality
Regular dissemination
• Monthly and quarterly count of vital events
• Detailed annual tabulations by demographic and
socio-demographic characteristics
• National and international comparable
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section C - Principles for the collection
and compilation of vital statistics (cont.)
Quality control
• Procedures that ensure the quality of vital statistics completeness, correctness, availability and timeliness
•
•
An integrated element within the vital statistics system
Regular and routine
•
Set up at each step:
–
–
–
–
Field activities
Querying practices at the time of data collection
Following up with statistical report transfer
Checking/querying at statistics editing, coding and tabulation
stages
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section C - Principles for the collection
and compilation of vital statistics (cont.)
Quality control – response to the concept note
… noted that a specific focus in reviewing
principles and recommendations is placed on
quality control and assurances, and such
approach is strongly supported.
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section D - Designation of responsibilities,
organizational structures of a national vital statistics system
•
What to include under the legal framework for civil registration and
vital statistics systems
–
–
–
–
Responsibility for collecting, compiling, processing and disseminating
vital statistics
Civil registration as the source of vital statistics
Designate duties: how vital statistics system obtains data from civil
registration
Coordination mechanisms
• Civil registration and vital statistics systems
• Various sources of vital statistics – concepts, definitions, classifications
• Users and producers
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–
–
Requirement of statistical information recorded
Reporting, compilation, processing, tabulation, analysis, presentation
and dissemination procedures
Procedure to monitoring and evaluation of the system
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section D - Designation of responsibilities,
organizational structures of a national vital statistics system
•
Vital statistics administration
– Within national statistical office
•
•
•
•
Equal treatment of vital events more likely
More extensive tabulations
No control over data collection
With other competing priorities (census)
– Within the civil registration office
• Direct control over data collection
• Might not be very interested in the statistical function
– Within relevant agencies (e.g., birth/death in Ministry of Health)
• For some, more interest in statistics – generate better data
• For others, not so much interest in statistics (eg, court
registering marriages and divorces)
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section E - Integration and Coordination
• Coordination mechanisms
– adopting uniform legislation on a nationwide basis
– using consistent concepts, definitions and
classifications within the vital statistics system,
across all data sources
– ensuring centralized coordination of statistical
activities
– creating an inter-agency coordination committee
– adopting uniform processes and practices at
every level of the vital statistics system
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section E - Integration and Coordination
• Techniques to improve communication between
local and central offices; between staffs in civil
registration and vital statistics offices 
improve uniformity
– Issuing handbooks
– Producing newsletters jointly by staff from
different offices, discussing various issues,
keeping everyone informed
– Conducting trainings by travelling consultants;
can also check quality and completeness at local
and sub-national level by consultants
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section E - Integration and Coordination
• Coordination mechanisms – response to the concept
note  strengthening the text?
Many highlighted the importance of coordination
mechanisms in successfully running the civil registration
and vital statistics systems. Proposals from the
respondents included that the revision should reaffirm the
importance of collaboration between key institutions. The
revision should also point out the benefits of creating an
inter-agency committee to overseeing the operation of
civil registration and vital statistics. The coordination
among key institutions also benefits from establishing a
clear delineation of responsibilities of various institutions
in the legal framework for the vital statistics system. In
addition, common concepts and definitions across all data
sources should be emphasized in the revision.
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section F - Topics and themes to be
covered in a vital statistics system
- Topics and themes to be collected for vital
statistics purposes through a civil
registration system: core and non-core, for
-
Live birth
Death
Foetal death
Marriage
Divorce
- ESA/STAT/AC.233/3, table 1
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section F - Topics and themes to be
covered in a vital statistics system
- Topics and themes to be collected
through population censuses and
sample surveys, on
- Fertility
- Mortality
- ESA/STAT/AC.233/3, table 2
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section F - Topics and themes to be
covered in a vital statistics system
Topics to be covered – response to the concept note
In general, all replies support re-visiting the core topics
for a vital statistics system. Summarizing the opinions,
they range from the need to enlarge the list of core topics
– for example, with variables to monitor maternal health
and pregnancy outcomes or expanding the variable of
marital status to accommodate people who are in civil
partnerships – to noting that quite a few of the core
topics in the current set of recommendations are not used
because of the low response rate.
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section G - Operational principles for
compiling and processing vital statistics
• Advance planning for data collection
– Meeting user needs, setting priorities
– Long-range programming: 3 – 4 year planning
– Compiling statistics for all geographic areas,
major/minor civil divisions, major town and cities, by
urban/rural
– Covering total population, with accompanying metadata
– Identifying important population sub-groups (eg,
based on ethnicity)
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section G - Operational principles for
compiling and processing vital statistics (cont.)
•
•
Centralized compilation at national level is recommended
Recommendations on various components of vital statistics system
– Obtaining records from data collection agency: strict reporting
schedule
– Editing, data intial checking
– Querying at inconsistency/inappropriate response
– Imputation of missing and inconsistent information
– Coding, in particular cause of death and place of
registration/residence/occurrence, needs special instructions
– Converting data into electronic format:
responsibilities/procedure/checks
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section G - Operational principles for
compiling and processing vital statistics (cont.)
Recommendations on various components of vital
statistics system (cont.)
– Tabulation:
• Review conducted on coverage of vital statistics,
completeness + accuracy of characteristics,
sufficient information, and timeliness
• Provide meta-data to users when prepare
tabulations
• Tabulating based on occurrence, not registration,
revealing information on delayed registration
• Tabulating based on usual residence
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section H - Presentation of results and
data dissemination
Basic principles
• Regular dissemination
• All geographic area
• Data by necessary classification
• Timely reporting
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Section H - Presentation of results
and data dissemination (cont.)
Forms of data dissemination/ways to strengthen dissemination programme
• Annual publication
• Working tabulations
• Quarterly and monthly bulletin
• Electronic dissemination
• Special tabulation, for users upon request
• Technical meetings, discussing contents and limitations of the data files
and how best to use and interpret them
• Directory of users, announcing availability of publications and technical
meetings
• Protection against disclosure in statistical presentations (new!)
–
–
Type of disclosure
How to deal with them
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York
Points for discussion
• Structure and content of the chapter
• Core/non-core topics to be covered on civil registration
statistical form
• Newly proposed additions:
– Quality control as one principle for the collection and
compilation of vital statistics (Section C)
– Topics to be collected in censuses and surveys (Section
F)
– Protection of privacy at data dissemination (Section H)
• Any additions/revisions?
United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Standards for Civil Registration and
Vital Statistics Systems, 27-30 June 2011, New York