US Vital Statistics 1890 - 1984
These files are images of the published volumes of vital statistics from the US National Center for Health Statistics for the period 1890 through 1984. They have the same content as the files at NCSH but are compressed using software from CVisionTech called CVista. These files are about half the size of the originals, but preserve all the detail. Acrobat 5.0 or better is required to view them.
Anyone desiring a machine readable versions of the information in these volumes is invited to send a paragraph describing their application to Karen Norberg (norberg at nber dot org). A handful of tables have already been transcribed and are available at http://www.nber.org/vital-statistics. We hope to do more in the future.
These files are quite large. Most single years are 10-20 megabytes with the multi-year book more than 40 megabytes. 1938 did not compress well and checks in at 147 megabytes. You can download it in sections here .
Fetal mortality is always included with the Natality statistics, not with Mortality.
An interactive index to the natality tables which allows the selection and download of individual tables is available here .
In using data from any of the volumes, it is recommended that reference be made to the explanatory text in Volume I of each year, which describes the sources, nature, and limitations of the statistics.
Tables of Contents
These files offer the tables of contents from the annual volumes, so that visitors can avoid downloading entire volumes just to confirm the absence of a particular table.
| 1931 - 1959 | Combined | |
| 1960 - 1967 | Natality | Mortality |
Rates
| 1900 - 1910 | Rates |
| 1900 - 1940 | Rates |
| 1940 - 1960 | Rates |
Census Based
Vital Statistics for cities with population over 100,000. Volume 1 for 1900 is defective on the NCHS web site.
| Year | Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 | Vol 4 |
| 1890 | Analysis and Rates | Vital Statistics | Mortality | Mortality |
| 1900 | ??? | Population | Analysis and Rates | Mortality |
Death Registration Area
| 1905 | Mortality |
| 1906 | Mortality |
| 1907 | Mortality |
| 1908 | Mortality |
| 1909 | Mortality |
| 1910 | Mortality |
| 1911 | Mortality |
| 1912 | Mortality |
| 1913 | Mortality |
| 1914 | Mortality |
| 1915 | Mortality |
| 1916 | Mortality |
| 1917 | Mortality |
| 1918 | Mortality |
| 1918 | (Flu Supplement) |
| 1919 | Mortality |
| 1920 | Mortality |
| 1921 | Mortality |
| 1922 | Mortality |
| 1923 | Mortality |
| 1924 | Mortality |
| 1925 | Mortality |
| 1926 | Mortality |
| 1927 | Mortality |
| 1928 | Mortality |
| 1929 | Mortality |
Abridged Tables
| 1931-32 | Mortality |
Separate registration areas for births and deaths
| 1931 | Natality | Mortality |
| 1932 | Natality | Mortality |
Begins national coverage (48 states)
| Year | Vol 1 | Vol 2 |
| 1933 | Natality | Mortality |
| 1934 | Natality | Mortality |
| 1935 | Natality | Mortality |
| 1936 | Natality | Mortality |
Residence classification
| Year | Part 1 | Part 2 |
| 1937 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1938 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1939 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1939-40 | Supplement | |
| 1940 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1941 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1942 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1943 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1944 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1945 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1946 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1947 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1948 | Occurance | Residence |
| 1949 | Occurance | Residence |
Census year with rates
| Year | Vol 1 | Vol 2 | Vol 3 |
| 1950 | Introduction | Natality, Marriage&Divorce | Mortality |
| Year | Vol 1 | Vol 2 | |
| 1951 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1952 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1953 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1954 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1955 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1956 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1957 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1958 | All Else | Mortality | |
| 1959 | All Else | Mortality | Begin Alaska |
Micro data is available for 1959 onwards.
The modern era
Two volumes are missing.
Last update 15 August 2006. Corespondence to jroth@nber.org