Death Profiles by County

This dataset contains counts of deaths for California counties based on information entered on death certificates. Final counts are derived from static data and include out-of-state deaths to California residents, whereas provisional counts are derived from incomplete and dynamic data. Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period. Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data.

The final data tables include both deaths that occurred in each California county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence) and deaths to residents of each California county (by residence), whereas the provisional data table only includes deaths that occurred in each county regardless of the place of residence (by occurrence). The data are reported as totals, as well as stratified by age, gender, race-ethnicity, and death place type. Deaths due to all causes (ALL) and selected underlying cause of death categories are provided. See temporal coverage for more information on which combinations are available for which years.

The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Contact Email [email protected]
Program California Department of Public Health, Center for Health Statistics and Informatics, Vital Statistics Branch
Homepage URL https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHSI/Pages/Data-and-Statistics-.aspx
Temporal Coverage

Final Data Tables:

  • 1970-1978
    • Total Population (only for all causes)
    • Age (only for all causes)
    • Gender (only for all causes)
  • 1979-2022
    • Total Population by Cause
    • Gender by Cause
    • Age (only for all causes)
  • 2000-2022
    • Race-Ethnicity by Cause
  • 2014-2022
    • Place Type (only for all causes)

Provisional Data Tables:

  • 2023-2024
    • Total Population by Cause
    • Gender by Cause
    • Race-Ethnicity by Cause
    • Age (only for all causes)
    • Place Type (only for all causes)
Spatial/Geographic Coverage

California

Geographic Granularity County
Language English (EN)
Frequency Monthly
De-Identification Method

In accordance with the California Health and Human Services Data De-Identification Guidelines, counts less than 11 have been suppressed to protect privacy, and additional suppression has been applied to complementary cells to prevent the inference of the values of suppressed cells. An Annotation_Code of 1 denotes non-zero counts less than 11 suppressed due to small numbers, and an Annotation_Code of 2 denotes a cell suppressed as a complementary cell.

Suppression is applied to complementary cells across all stratifications, including across all months for each year. Since annual counts will be provided once provisional data is finalized, complementary cells are suppressed across the months for each year even when annual counts have not yet been provided.

Source Link https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CHSI/Pages/Data-Applications.aspx
Data Collection Tool
  • California Electronic Death Registration System (CA-EDRS)
License Terms of Use
Limitations Use of this data is subject to the CHHS Terms of Use and any copyright and proprietary notices incorporated in or accompanying the individual files.
Additional Limitations

Data Completeness: Provisional counts are based on the records available when the data was retrieved, given by Data_Extract_Date, and may not represent all deaths that occurred during the time period.

Deaths involving injuries from external or environmental forces, such as accidents, homicide and suicide, often require additional investigation that tends to delay certification of the cause and manner of death. This can result in significant under-reporting of these deaths in provisional data. For more information, see “Timeliness of Death Certificate Data for Mortality Surveillance and Provisional Estimates” from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Additional Information

Underlying Cause of Death: The cause of death categories are based solely on the underlying cause of death as coded by the International Classification of Diseases. The underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury." It is a single value assigned to each death based on the details as entered on the death certificate. When more than one cause is listed, the order in which they are listed can affect which cause is coded as the underlying cause. This means that similar events could be coded with different underlying causes of death depending on variations in how they were entered. Consequently, while underlying cause of death provides a convenient comparison between cause of death categories, it may not capture the full impact of each cause of death as it does not always take into account all conditions contributing to the death.

Provided as a three-character code:

  • ALL = All causes (total)
  • ALZ = Alzheimer's disease [G30]
  • CAN = Malignant neoplasms (cancers) [C00-C97]
  • CLD = Chronic lower respiratory disease (CLRD) [J40-J47]
  • DIA = Diabetes mellitus [E10-E14]
  • HOM = Assault (homicide) [*U01-*U02, X85-Y09, Y87.1]
  • HTD = Diseases of heart [I00-I09, I11, I13, I20-I51]
  • HYP = Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease [I10, I12, I15]
  • INJ = Accidents (unintentional injuries) [V01-X59, Y85-Y86]
  • LIV = Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis [K70, K73-K74]
  • NEP = Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis [N00-N07, N17-N19, N25-N27]
  • PAR = Parkinson's disease [G20-G21]
  • PNF = Pneumonia and influenza [J09-J18]
  • STK = Cerebrovascular disease (stroke) [I60-I69]
  • SUI = Intentional self-harm (suicide) [*U03, X60-X84, Y87.0]

Cause of death categories for years 1999 and later are based on the tenth revision of International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes listed. Comparable categories are provided for years 1979 through 1998 based on ninth revision (ICD-9) codes. For more information on the comparability of cause of death classification between ICD revisions see Comparability of Cause-of-death Between ICD Revisions.

The previously included OTH category for all other causes of death is no longer provided. This value can be calculated from the difference of ALL and the sum of all other categories.

Age: Age of the decedent at death grouped into to the following categories: "Under 1 year," "1-4 years," "5-14 years," "15-24 years," "25-34 years," "35-44 years," "45-54 years," "55-64 years," "65-74 years," "75-84 years," and "85 years and over." Records with unknown age are excluded from this strata.

Gender: The legal sex or gender identity of the decedent as on the death certificate. For deaths reported as of July 1, 2015, the decedent's sex recorded on a California death certificate should reflect their gender identity. As of 2021, gender identity on death certificates has included female, male, and nonbinary. Values for this strata include "Female," "Male," and "Nonbinary/Unknown." Records with nonbinary and unknown gender identity are combined into "Nonbinary/Unknown" due to small counts to protect privacy in accordance with the California Health and Human Services Data De-Identification Guidelines. Counts of nonbinary and unknown are not provided for data prior to 2021.

Race-Ethnicity: The race or Hispanic ethnicity of the decedent, includes: "American Indian/Alaska Native," "Asian," "Black," "Hawaiian/Pacific Islander," "Hispanic," "Multi-Race," "White," and "Other/Unknown." All records with a response of "Yes" to "Was decedent Hispanic/Latino(a)/Spanish?" are included in "Hispanic" regardless of race.

Place Type: Death place type represents the type of location where a death occurred and includes the following categories: "Inpatient," "Emergency Room/Outpatient," "Decedent's Home," "Hospice Facility," "Nursing Home/Long Term Care Facility," and "Other/Unknown." "Other/Unknown" includes records where the death place type is "Dead on Arrival," "Other," or "Unknown."

Citation

Final Data:

California Department of Public Health. Death Statistical Master File (Static), 1970-2013. Compiled by Center for Health Statistics and Informatics.

California Department of Public Health. California Comprehensive Master Death File (Static), 2014-2022. Compiled by Center for Health Statistics and Informatics.

Provisional Data:

California Department of Public Health. California Comprehensive Death File (Dynamic), 2023-2024. Compiled by Center for Health Statistics and Informatics. Date extracted: [Data_Extract_Date].

Last Updated March 27, 2024, 16:05 (UTC)