1. Session 15. International collection of vital statistics and regional response rates

2. UN international demographic data collection
Based on sending a set of questionnaires to national statistics authorities
The major vehicle for dissemination of population and vital statistics is the UN Demographic Yearbook (DYB)
The process for collecting data is basically sending questionnaires every year to the statistical offices of each country.
A great deal of our collection of demographic data depends on the replies received from countries.

3. Demographic Yearbook (DYB)
Metadata collected
Data collected
Vital statistics
Population estimates
International migration
Population and housing censuses
General characteristics
Economic characteristics
Housing
Household characteristics
Quality
Methods
DYB Questionnaires are dispatched to NSOs
in electronic format (excel, xml)
customized for each country
instructions and metadata worksheets
data tabulations, pre-filled with existing data
Questionnaires on population estimates, vital statistics, migration flows are dispatched to NSOs every year, whereas the census questionnaires follow the census schedule of each country.

4. Vital statistics questionnaire
Collection of tables distributed in 10 sections:
1. VS summary by urban/rural residence for the last 5 years
2. Live births
6. Infant deaths (deaths under 1 year of age)
5. Deaths
3. Fertility rates
4. Life Tables
8. Legally induced abortions
9. Marriages
7. Foetal deaths and Late foetal deaths
10. Divorces

5. Demographic Yearbook (DYB)
Completeness and accuracy of data
Differences in statistical definitions
Diverse tabulation procedures
Figures coming from sample surveys
International comparability depends on:
International comparability depends on:
Completeness and accuracy of data produced by each country
Differences in statistical definitions of vital events
Diverse tabulation procedures: for ex. countries using different age groups (9-13)
Official estimates coming from sample surveys, which makes it difficult to disaggregate data and it’s subject to sampling errors

6. How complete are the data sent from countries?

7. Percentage of countries that sent data to UNSD in the last five years

8. VS tables provided in the last five years
Total no. of tables in VS questionnaire = 49
In general, very low response, less than half of the requested tables are being provided by the countries in the room

9. A look at specific tables, last 5 years
Table E01 – Live births by sex and urban/rural residence
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Botswana
Egypt ü
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Seychelles
South Africa
Swaziland
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe

10. A look at specific tables, last 5 years
Table G01 – Deaths by sex and urban/rural residence
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Botswana
Egypt ü
Ethiopia
Gambia
Ghana
Kenya
Lesotho
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
Nigeria
Seychelles
South Africa
Swaziland
Tanzania
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Deaths, a little more complete than live births.
These are only the most general tables for mortality and fertility. The response gets lower for other events, such as infant deaths, marriages, and also for more disaggregated data, for example cross tabulations by age or marital status.
We have seen so far the response from countries in terms of quantity, now let’s have a quick look at the quality of data sent to UNSD

11. What is the quality of data sent from countries?
So, let’s talk about quality!

12. Civil registration coverage worldwide

13. Civil registration coverage worldwide

14. Civil registration coverage worldwide
Coverage is lower for death registration, and there are also more countries for whom we don’t have information on their system coverage. This means that they haven’t sent any metadata along with their data.

15. Quality of cause of data
* The situation gets worse if we have a look at the quality of specific items. Particularly, cause of data.
* We can see here that most of Africa practically does not have data on cause of data. As we have seen in the session on the Role of Health Institutions, this information is very important to monitor a range of health indicators, like maternal mortality, and to formulate policies to improve population health.

16. Importance of providing data and metadata for dissemination
Enabling social and public health studies
Representation in the international setting
International comparability
Informed decisions at the national and international level
Before reaching the end of this presentation, I would like to highlight the importance of having country data disseminated by UNSD:
Enabling social and public health studies: academic institutions and NGOs gain access to the data.
Representation in international setting: opportunity to share progress
International comparability : for global publications, monitoring of development indicators (such as MDG)
Informed decisions: not only at the national level, but also at the regional and global level. These data are reviewed and studied by a wide range of UN agencies and aid institutions in order to help them in their work programme and allocation of funds.

17. Thank You Спасибо Gracias Merci 谢谢 ﺷﻜﺮﺍﹰ demostat@un.org