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Deaths and life expectancy (Discontinued)

Contact info

Population and Education, Social statistics.
Dorthe Larsen
+45 39 17 33 07

dla@dst.dk

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Deaths and life expectancy 2016

These statistics cover all deaths among people with usual residence in Denmark regardless of whether the death occurs in Denmark or abroad.

Information about cause of death is not available for those people, who have died abroad.

The statistics of the dead include in the annual calculation of average life expectancy, compiled by Statistics Denmark. The average life expectancy indicates the expected average life expectancy of a newborn, based on mortality for the last two or five years period, e.g. 2016-2017.

Statistical presentation

These statistics contains information on number of deaths by sex, age and municipality of residence.

These statistics cover all deaths among people with usual residence in Denmark regardless of whether the death occurs in Denmark or abroad.

Information about cause of death is not available for those people who have died abroad.

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Statistical processing

Daily deliveries from the Central Population Register (CPR) and yearly delivery from Statens Serum Institut (SSI) are basis for the statistics.

Data is not checked for errors.

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Relevance

Municipalities, regions, ministries, the media and private individuals are using the statistics for public and private purposes and as input to the public debate.

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Accuracy and reliability

The statistics are based on the Central Population Register (CPR). The quality of the data is very high.

For approximately 5 per cent of the deaths the cause of death is missing. These people have often died abroad.

The statistics of death include the annual calculation of average life expectancy, compiled by Statistics Denmark. The average life expectancy indicates the average number of years a newborn is expected to live on the condition that current age-related death rates remain constant in the future. Life expectancy should therefore only be seen as an indicator of the current mortality of the population - not a prediction of how long newborns will live in practice because age-specific mortality generally decreases over time. The average life expectancy by municipality may however be subject to uncertainty - especially for the small municipalities.

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Timeliness and punctuality

The statistics concerning deaths is published app. 45 days after the end of the year.

Information concerning the causes of deaths however are quite delayed and are disseminated irregularly.

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Comparability

The statistics is comparable over time.

The codes for causes of death have been altered. Until 1993 ICD8 (International Classification of Causes of Death 8th Rev) have been applied. This implies that causes of death before and after 1994 can’t necessarily be compared. However, there have been produced comparable statistics at certain levels.

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Accessibility and clarity

News from Statistics Denmark and the Statbank.

Yearly publications: Vital statistics, Statistical Yearbook and Statistical ten-year review.

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