Vital Statistics - Death Database (CVSD)

Detailed information for 2019 and 2020

This is an administrative survey that collects demographic and medical (cause of death) information monthly from all provincial and territorial vital statistics registries on all deaths in Canada.

The 2016 to 2020 data are considered preliminary due to improvements in methodology and timeliness which shortened the duration of data collection. Data for Yukon are not available as of 2017.

Data release - May 13, 2020

• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy
• Documentation

Description

This is an administrative survey that collects demographic and medical (cause of death) information monthly from all provincial and territorial vital statistics registries on all deaths in Canada.

The 2016 to 2020 data are considered preliminary due to improvements in methodology and timeliness which shortened the duration of data collection. Data for Yukon are not available as of 2017.

Reference period: 2019 and 2020

Collection period: From the beginning of the reference period until approximately six to seven months after the end of the reference period.

Subjects

• Births and deaths
• Diseases and health conditions
• Health
• Life expectancy and deaths
• Population and demography

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The conceptual universe of the monthly provisional Death database is deaths occurring in Canada of Canadian residents and non-residents.

The target population of the monthly provisional Death database is deaths occurring in Canada of Canadian residents and non-residents.

The actual (survey) population of the monthly provisional Death database is deaths occurring in Canada of Canadian residents and non-residents in Canada.

Instrument design

This methodology does not apply.

Sampling

This survey is a census with a cross-sectional design.

No sampling is done.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: January to March 2019 to and January to March 2020

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are extracted from administrative files.

Provincial and territorial Vital Statistics Acts (or equivalent legislation) render compulsory the registration of all live births, stillbirths, deaths and marriages within their jurisdictions.

The Canadian Vital Statistics system operates under an agreement between the Government of Canada and governments of the provinces and territories. The Vital Statistics Council for Canada, an advisory committee set up by an Order-in-Council, oversees policy and operational matters. All provincial and territorial jurisdictions and Statistics Canada are represented on the Vital Statistics Council. Under the agreement, all registrars collect a specified set of data elements, although any of them may decide to collect additional information.

The central Vital Statistics Registry in each province and territory provides data from death registrations to Statistics Canada. The form for the registration of a death consists of personal information, supplied to the funeral director by an informant, and the medical certificate of cause of death, completed by the medical practitioner last in attendance, or by a coroner, if an inquest or enquiry was held. The following statistical data items are reported for each death by the appropriate authorities for inclusion in the Canadian Vital Statistics system:

- Age, sex, marital status, place of residence and birthplace of the deceased
- Date of death
- Underlying cause of death classified to the " World Health Organization International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems" (ICD).
- Province or territory of occurrence of death
- Place of accident (for most non-transport accidental deaths)
- Autopsy (whether one was held, and if so, whether the results of it were taken into account in establishing the cause of death)

All jurisdictions supply microfilm copies or optical images or paper copies of death registration forms to Statistics Canada. In addition, all provinces supply electronic abstracts of registrations, which contain the required standard information.

Starting with the data for reference year 2007, the electronic transfer was performed by sending the data via the National Routing System (NRS) according to Statistics Canada standards. The effective date for this method of transmission varies by province (2007 for Alberta; 2008 for Manitoba; 2010 for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia; and 2012 for New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador).

For the territories, the required standard information on paper is converted to electronic format at Statistics Canada.

Subsequent changes to registrations due to errors, amendments or omissions are transmitted to Statistics Canada as the information becomes available. However, changes received after a cut-off date are not reflected in published tabulations.

Error detection

Provinces and territories that supply machine-readable data carry out edits (edit validation and data consistency) before transmitting their data, based on standard edit specifications prepared by Statistics Canada. The Centre for Population Health Data has actively promoted the use of a standard data dictionary and standard correlation edits for provincial/territorial data entry.

The last comprehensive study of the quality of data capture and data coding was done in 1981, when error rates for most variables were found to be quite low. Since then, studies have been completed on an irregular basis for specific provinces. The most recent study was done in 2002 on the 2000 Prince Edward Island death data following their development of a new data capture system. A systematic random sample of records was drawn, and the Prince Edward Island capture was compared with the microfilmed documents. Inconsistencies were documented, and a report was sent to the Prince Edward Island Vital Statistics Registrar. Overall, the error rate was zero for most of the important statistical variables (sex of decedent, place of birth) and very low for others (date of birth, age).

The only death data regularly captured at Statistics Canada are from the three territories. Operations and Integration Division maintains data capture quality controls and performs 20% verification of captured data to maintain an error rate of less than 3%.

Imputation

No imputations were done.

Estimation

This administrative survey does not produce estimates

Quality evaluation

Upon completion of the monthly provisional database (produced as described in the section Error Detection above), Statistics Canada carries out minor quality checks that include:

1) producing a set of verification tables which consist of basic tabulations for the majority of variables in the database by province or territory of occurrence,

2) running frequencies and looking for outliers on certain data elements and,

3) comparing the most recent data year with past data years to detect any unusual or unexpected changes.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

In order to prevent any data disclosure, confidentiality analysis is done using the Statistics Canada Generalized Disclosure Control System (G-Confid). G-Confid is used for primary suppression (direct disclosure) as well as for secondary suppression (residual disclosure). Direct disclosure occurs when the value in a tabulation cell is composed of or dominated by few enterprises while residual disclosure occurs when confidential information can be derived indirectly by piecing together information from different sources or data series.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this survey.

Data accuracy

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the duration of data collection has been shortened considerably. As a result, there may have been fewer deaths captured by the time of release.

Documentation

• Glossary
  • Format: Glossary - HTML[HTML]