Vital events. Deaths and causes of death
Number of deaths registered during the calendar year, distribution of deceased persons by various demographic characteristics and medical causes of death. The indicators are published in absolute and relative terms (as rates). Deaths by type of settlement, place of residence and month of death, by sex, age group, ethnic nationality, marital status, educational level, cause of death. Perinatal deaths. Stillbirths. Infant deaths by sex, age, place of residence, time of birth, age of mother, marital status of mother, mother’s educational level. | |
Classification of Estonian administrative units and settlements (EHAK) Statistical Classification of Regional Units of Estonia International Standard Codes for the Representation of the Names of Countries (ISO 3166) Classification of Ethnicities Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages (ISO 639-2) International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) Country of Citizenship List | |
Deceased persons, stillbirths | |
Administrative unit – a unit based on administrative division, the name, type and boundaries of which are determined by law and other legislation, and in the territory of which state or local government administration is carried out. The administrative units of the territory of Estonia are counties, rural municipalities and cities. Age-specific death rate – annual number of deaths per 1,000 population of a specific age group (based on mean annual population). Birth order – the number that shows the live-birth order of children to the mother. Cause of death – the underlying cause of death, which has been defined by the World Health Organisation as follows: a) all diseases, morbid conditions or injuries that either resulted in or contributed to death, or b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced any such injuries. Citizenship – a permanent legal relationship between a person and the country that he or she is a citizen of. City settlement region – neighbouring settlements where most inhabitants live in regions where population density is greater than 1,000 inhabitants per km2 and the population figure is greater than 5,000. Grid map data have been used for determining regions based on population density and figure. See settlement region. Country of birth – mother’s country of residence at the time of the child’s birth. Crude death rate – annual number of deaths per 1,000 inhabitants (based on mean annual population). Date of occurrence of vital event – the exact date when the event occurred, which does not depend on the date of registration of the event. Date of registration of vital event – the date the vital event was registered at the registry offices. Educational level – the highest level of education that a person has completed. Highest educational attainment is presented in accordance with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011). Ethnic nationality – a person's belonging to an ethnic group based on self-determination of the person. As a rule, ethnic nationality is consistent throughout a person's life. A child’s ethnic nationality is determined by the parents; if a child’s (aged 0–17) ethnic nationality is not available in the population register, the mother’s ethnic nationality is assigned to the child. Infant deaths – deaths of up to one-year-old live-born children. Infant mortality rate – deaths of infants (under one-year-old children) per 1,000 live births in the same year. Late neonatal deaths – deaths of infants after the first week but before 28 completed days of life. Mean annual population – arithmetic mean of the population number at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year (beginning of the next year), rounded to a whole number. Used in the calculation of rates associated with vital events during a year. Neonatal deaths – the deaths of infants during the first four weeks of their life. Early and late neonatal deaths are distinguished. Perinatal deaths – foetal and infant deaths during the perinatal period (commences at 22 completed weeks of pregnancy and ends 6 days after birth). Place of residence – the area or settlement where the person lived permanently at the time of death. If unknown, last known place of residence information from the statistical activity 30101 “Population” is used. Rural settlement region – neighbouring settlements where population density is lower than 200 inhabitants per km2 or a region with higher population density where the population figure is under 5,000. Grid map data have been used for determining regions based on population density and figure. See settlement region. Settlement region – a territorial unit consisting of settlements with the same population density. Settlement regions are divided into city settlement regions, town settlement regions and rural settlement regions based on population density and population figure. In the case of a division into two, city and town settlement regions are added. The division is applied since 2018. The data for the years back to 2015 have been recalculated (see more Methodology for establishing city, town and rural settlement region types and clusters) Settlement unit – administrative units (rural municipalities and cities) are divided into settlement units. Settlement units are settlements: cities, city districts, towns, small towns and villages. Standardised death rate – a death rate that is calculated using an internationally agreed standard age-sex distribution in order to eliminate the effect of the population-specific age-sex distribution on mortality indicators. Until 2014, the age-sex distribution of the European Standard Population (published in 1976) was used. Since 2014, the standardised death rate is calculated based on the standard age-sex distribution published in 2013. Stillbirth or late foetal death – an intra-uterine death of a foetus weighing at least 500 grams at birth, which took place after the 22nd week of pregnancy. Town settlement region – neighbouring settlements where most inhabitants live in regions where population density is 200–1,000 inhabitants per km2 and the population figure is greater than 5,000, but which do not constitute a city settlement region because of the population density. Grid map data have been used for determining regions based on population density and figure. See settlement region. | |
Death | |
Deaths registered in Estonia and in the Estonian representations abroad, whereby the deceased was a permanent resident of Estonia FRAME All deaths in the reference year (based on the population register) | |
A person's place of residence at the level of settlement | |
1989–… | |
Not applicable |
DIRECTLY APPLICABLE LEGAL ACTS Commission Regulation (EU) No 328/2011 of 5 April 2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, as regards statistics on causes of death Regulation (EU) No 205/2014 of 4 March 2014 laying down uniformed conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council on European demographic statistics, as regards breakdowns of data, deadlines and data revisions Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2013 on European demographic statistics (Text with EEA relevance) OTHER LEGAL ACTS Not available OTHER AGREEMENTS Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) |
The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 32, § 34, § 35, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. | |
The treatment of confidential data is regulated by the Procedure for Protection of Data Collected and Processed by Statistics Estonia (in Estonian). See more details on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section Õigusaktid. |
Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on the website. Every year on 1 October, the release times of the statistical database, news releases, main indicators by IMF SDDS and publications for the following year are announced in the release calendar (in the case of publications – the release month). | |
All users have been granted equal access to official statistics: dissemination dates of official statistics are announced in advance and no user category (incl. Eurostat, state authorities and mass media) is provided access to official statistics before other users. Official statistics are first published in the statistical database. If there is also a news release, it is published simultaneously with data in the statistical database. Official statistics are available on the website at 8:00 a.m. on the date announced in the release calendar. |
Not published | |
Not published | |
Data are published in the statistical database at https://andmed.stat.ee/en/stat under the subject area “Population / Population indicators and composition / Population figure and composition” in the following table: RV0213U: Components of change in population figure by county, administrative division as at 01.01.2018, in the tables RV030–RV043 of the subject area “Population / Population indicators and composition / Main demographic indicators” and in all tables of the subject area “Population / Vital events / Deaths”. In the subject area “Discontinued datasets / Population. Archive / Vital events. Archive” are discontinued datasets RV401–RV74 and in the subject area “Discontinued datasets / Population. Archive / Population indicators and composition. Archive” is discontinued dataset: RV0213: Components of change in population figure by county, (2000-2016). | |
The dissemination of data collected for the purpose of producing official statistics is guided by the requirements provided for in § 33, § 34, § 35, § 36, § 38 of the Official Statistics Act. Access to microdata and anonymisation of microdata are regulated by Statistics Estonia’s procedure for dissemination of confidential data for scientific purposes. | |
Data serve as input for statistical activities 30004 “Population projections”, 30101 “Population”, 50101 “Regional development” and 50201 “Sustainable development indicators”. | |
Implementation of the residency index in demographic statistics Mathematical formulas in population statistics Methodology for establishing city, town and rural settlement region types and clusters | |
Not available |
To assure the quality of processes and products, Statistics Estonia applies the EFQM Excellence Model, the European Statistics Code of Practice and the Quality Assurance Framework of the European Statistical System (ESS QAF). Statistics Estonia is also guided by the requirements in § 7. “Principles and quality criteria of producing official statistics” of the Official Statistics Act. | |
Statistics Estonia performs all statistical activities according to an international model (Generic Statistical Business Process Model – GSBPM). According to the GSBPM, the final phase of statistical activities is overall evaluation using information gathered in each phase or sub-process; this information can take many forms, including feedback from users, process metadata, system metrics and suggestions from employees. This information is used to prepare the evaluation report which outlines all the quality problems related to the specific statistical activity and serves as input for improvement actions. |
Ministry of Social Affairs Ministry of the Interior Estonian Institute for Population Studies National Institute for Health Development | |
Since 1996, Statistics Estonia has conducted reputation and user satisfaction surveys. All results are available on the website of Statistics Estonia in the section User surveys. | |
Use of administrative data ensures complete coverage and up-to-date data. |
Using administrative data ensures data accuracy. If necessary, the data are completed and cleaned at Statistics Estonia using other administrative registers (population register, Estonian Education Information System). | |
Not applicable | |
Deaths of permanent residents of Estonia are taken into account in statistics. As the required registered residence data are received from residency index and place of residence is determined based on information available at administrative registers, the number of deaths counted in statistics depends on the data quality of residency index and place of residence. |
The use of internationally common methodology allows for the comparison of data collected under the regulation. The identification of causes of death is internationally regulated. The respective data is collected and compliance with the rules is monitored by the National Institute for Health Development, which is the authorised processor of the Estonian Causes of Death Registry. The data on deaths have been compiled using the same basic data and uniform data processing methodology. This will ensure comparability of data in the country by administrative units. The most detailed data are available for the municipalities. | |
The data are comparable throughout the time series. The length of the time series varies, but the data in the same database tables have been compiled on the basis of similar definitions. The length of the time series depends on the importance of sharing events in society on the basis of one or another indicator, but also on the availability of relevant data. Based on the length of the time series, the data can be divided into four groups: 1) the most general data from 1923 onwards; 2) Stillbirths by sex and age group since 1970; 3) Addition of a large group of indicators (age, place of residence, common children) at the beginning of the 1990s; 4) The change in the place of residence indicator after the administrative reform (tables with index U) since 2017. | |
The common methodology is used to process raw data of all vital events (statistical activities 30201 “Vital events. Marriages”, 30202 “Vital events. Divorces”, 30203 “Vital events. Spontaneous and induced abortions”, 30204 “Vital events. Migration”, 30205 “Vital events. Deaths and causes of death”, 30206 “Vital events. Births”), which will ensure comparability of the data. Data related to a person (e.g. marital status, nationality, country of birth, citizenship, education) are calculated once and linked to the table of the respective event in the database. | |
Data related to a person (e.g. place of residence, marital status, nationality, country of birth, citizenship, education) are calculated once and linked to the table of the respective event in the database to ensure comparability of the data. Statistical indicators in the table form groups of characteristics that are comparable across tables. For example, different hierarchical levels of causes of death and standardised indicators of causes of death. |
The data revision policy and notification of corrections are described in the section Principles of dissemination of official statistics of the website of Statistics Estonia. | |
The published data may be revised if the methodology is modified, errors are discovered, new or better data become available. |
SURVEY DATA Not used ADMINISTRATIVE DATA Data on deceased persons (permanent residents of Estonia) are received from the population register of the Ministry of the Interior. After the end of the year, data on causes of death and perinatal deaths from the Estonian Causes of Death Registry are added to these data. The data on deaths and causes of death are collected by the National Institute for Health Development, which is the authorised processor of the Causes of Death Registry. DATA FROM OTHER STATISTICAL ACTIVITIES Data from statistical activity 30101 “Population” are used. | |
Annual Monthly Weekly | |
National Institute for Health Development, the authorised processor of the Estonian Causes of Death Registry, submits the data on medical causes of death. The performer of the statistical activity is permitted to process personal data with the consent of the data subject specified in subsection 10 (1) of the Personal Data Protection Act. Processing personal data after the death of the data subject is permitted with the consent of the persons specified in subsection 13 (1) of the Personal Data Protection Act.) Data from the population register are received via X-Road. Data from the Estonian Causes of Death Registry are received via e-mail. | |
The deceased person's data (personal ID and names), medical certificate data and registered death certificate data are used for collecting data, data checking, cleaning and adjustment. If necessary, the accuracy of data of death is checked against the population register data and compared with the data of previous events collected into the statistical database of population events. | |
After data cleaning, validation and linking, anonymized source files are compiled, which are used for producing annual statistics. | |
Not applied |