The Assessment of Vital Statistics in China China, Quan Shaowei 2014 May Daejeon

Is vital statistics produced from civil registration? Partly The total population, fertility rate and mortality rate is produced from census and survey, carried out by NBS. And the household registration by the Ministry of Public Security also have a household population statistics, include total population, fertility rate and mortality rate, always a little different from these from NBS, especial the figures by regions. The marriage, divorce, cause of death is from civil registration. The maternal and child health is from monitoring.

Does the vital statistics system ensures Universal coverage? Yes, but population survey is sample survey. The monitoring of maternal and child health is also not universal coverage, there are 336 monitoring units from Is continuous? Yes. The registered population statistics is from 1950s. The sample survey is from Confidentiality? For the census and survey, the confidentiality is ruled by statistics law. Other civil registration is ruled by the regulations or laws of separate agencies. Regular dissemination? Yes. by yearbook,annual bulletin, most of them can be obtained in website.

What is the role of health institutions in the system? The issuer of birth certificate and death certificate. Carry out the monitoring of maternal and child health. The compiler and publisher of the data of cause of death and of maternal and child health

Is there a body coordinating between statistics, civil registration, health and other institutions? No. Most coordination work is done as needed of the agencies, for assessing the accuracy and coverage of their own data.

Do the definitions of vital events in the vital statistics system comply with international standards? Mostly The definition of marriage and divorce may a little different from the international standards, but need verification to concerned agencies.

Topics comply with recommended?  For through the civil registration system: No. The live birth: the characteristics of the mother and the father are not included completely. The foetal death: I don’t know, need verification. Marriage and divorce: the characteristics of bride and groom are not included completely. Above all, the rural/urban definition of the civil registration is different from that of NBS. Most agencies use the definition of agriculture and non-agriculture definition. For this definition gives the attribution of everyone who has household registration, more Conveniently when register.

Topics comply with recommended? For through the census and surveys: No. In census, the members of the household don’t have indicator of “the line number of his or her mother, and also don’t have the survival of parents”. In surveys, besides the lacks above, the women 15 and over don’t have the total number of children ever born alive and so on. Just have the childbearing information in the last year.

The coverage of civil registration? In China, the civil registration comprise the live birth, the death, the cause of death, the maternal and child health, the marriage and the divorce. For live birth and death, we can assess the coverage with different source of civil registration data and census or survey. For other data, we don’t have direct source of data to make the assessment, we can assess them with the previous data and make analysis with population at risk.

Quality assessment methods in the vital statistics system? Yes, but not institutionalized. For the live birth, there are three kinds of registration and also the census or survey for the live birth, so we can compare these data in county or level, but I think only a part of counties have made the assessment, for there isn’t a institution to coordinate. For the death, we can compare the death data from the health institution and the public security institution, the funeral data from the civil affairs institution and the census or survey.

Possible Strategies The coordinating. Including the standard and institution. Better to establish a independent body or assign one specific agency to carry out the coordinating work. Need national network, and share to other agencies. For that, a comprehensive database based on unique identity card number is projected, in which all civil registrations are included and the data will update on time. The application of unified definition, for example the rural/urban definition by NBS.