Perinatal Mortality Data

Perinatal Mortality Data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics combine microdata from the Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set Period Data and the Fetal Death Data Set. Perinatal deaths refer to a combination of fetal deaths of at least 20 weeks gestation and neonatal deaths (under 28 days old). Because a relatively large number of deaths occur in the period immediately before and after delivery, this combined data set is useful in studying reproductive loss.

Other birth data available are Natality Data, 1968-1985 & 1991-1995, 1998-2001, Birth Cohort Linked Birth/Infant Death Data, 1983-1991, 1995-1998, and Matched Multiple Birth Data, 1995-1997.

CDC Wonder is a data extraction tool that can produce tables with counts of births occuring for select recent years within the United States to U.S. residents and non-residents. Counts can be obtained by state, county, child's gender and weight, maternal race, maternal age, maternal education, gestation period, prenatal care, and birth plurality.

Use of this data signifies agreement with NCHS' data use rules. Works referring to the datasets or codebooks should contain a citation to NCHS. Published material derived from this data should include a citation such as this at the bottom of the table: "Source: National Center for Health Statistics (span of years used)"

Microdata for the United States and its Territories are included on separate files. The data for each set of the Perinatal Mortality Data Set consist of three separate data files. The denominator file contains the live birth file. The numerator file includes perinatal deaths which could be linked to a live birth. The death data data in both the numerator and unlinked files include the deaths to infants less than one year of age who died in the same calendar year as the birth data, regardless of the calendar year of their birth. The unlinked file contains information from the death certificate for all perinatal deaths which could not be linked to a corresponding birth certificates. The variable OUTCOME can be used to distinguish between infant deaths and fetal deaths.

Demographic data include variables such as age and educational attainment of parents, marital status, live-birth order, race, sex, and geographic area. Health data include items such as birth weight, gestation, prenatal care, attendant at birth, and complications of labor and delivery. Geographic data includes state, county, and city of mother's residence and state and county of the place of birth. City and county data are available only for areas with a population of 250,000 or more.

SEER provides helpful U.S. Population data for 1969 on.

".zip" files can be unzipped with compression software like winzip, 7z, WinRAR and the like. To check ability to uncompress these files, download the small files compress.Z or compress.zip. These files give an example of how to read in .Z and .zip ASCII files into SAS for UNIX without decompressing the files.

To download files in Internet Explorer, right click on them and select "Save Target As...". Get the latest Acrobat Reader at www.abobe.com.

File size: The compressed denominator files are between 100 and 105 Mb. The numerator files are about 4 Mb. The compression ratio for these files is over 90%. NBER internal users can access the data from a UNIX shell at /homes/data/perinatal or on an NBER PC via Network Neighborhood --> NBER --> home --> data --> perinatal

Updates and changes.



United States -- Linked Birth and Perinatal Mortality Data 1995-2002
Data
SAS code
Linked Deaths
Births
Unlinked Deaths
Linked Deaths
Births
Unlinked Deaths
1995 N95.zip D95.zip U95.zip N95.sas D95.sas U95.sas
1996 N96.zip D96.zip U96.zip N96.sas D96.sas U96.sas
1997 N97.zip D97.zip U97.zip N97.sas D97.sas U97.sas
1998 N98.zip D98.zip U98.zip N98.sas D98.sas U98.sas
1999 n99.zip d99.zip u99.zip n99.sas d99.sas u99.sas
2000 n00.zip d00.zip u00.zip n00.sas d00.sas u00.sas
2001 n01.zip d01.zip u01.zip n01.sas d01.sas u01.sas
2002 n02.zip d02.zip u02.zip n02.sas d02.sas u02.sas



U.S. Territories -- Linked Birth and Perinatal Mortality Data 1995-2000
Data
SAS code
Linked Deaths Births Unlinked Deaths Linked Deaths Births Unlinked Deaths
1995 Tn95.zip Td95.zip Tu95.zip Tn95.sas Td95.sas Tu95.sas
1996 Tn96.zip Td96.zip Tu96.zip Tn96.sas Td96.sas Tu96.sas
1997 Tn97.zip Td97.zip Tu97.zip Tn97.sas Td97.sas Tu97.sas
1998 Tn98.zip Td98.zip Tu98.zip Tn98.sas Td98.sas Tu98.sas
1999 tn99.zip td99.zip tu99.zip tn99.sas td99.sas tu99.sas
2000 tn00.zip td00.zip tu00.zip tn00.sas td00.sas tu00.sas
2001 tn01.zip td01.zip tu01.zip tn01.sas td01.sas tu01.sas
2002 tn02.zip td02.zip tu02.zip tn02.sas td02.sas tu02.sas

DOCUMENTATION

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
All files below, Pkzipped Peri95 Peri96 Peri97 Peri98 Peri99 Peri00 Peri01 Peri02
Introduction intro intro intro intro intro intro intro intro
List of Data Elements and Locations datael datael datael datael datael datael datael datael
Record Layout link link link link link link link link
Geographic Codes -- Description geo geo geo geo geo geo geo geo
Geographic Code Outline -- City city city city city city city city city
Geographic Code Outline -- County county county county county county county county county
Causes of Death
cdeath
cdeath
Linked Data Documentation Table 1 tab1 tab1 tab1 tab1 tab1 tab1 tab1 tab1
Linked Data Documentation Table 2 tab2 tab2 tab2 tab2 tab2 tab2 tab2 tab2
Linked Data Documentation Table 3 tab3 tab3 tab3 tab3 tab3 tab3 tab3 tab3
Linked Data Documentation Table 4 tab4 tab4 tab4 tab4 tab4 tab4 tab4 tab4
Linked Data Documentation Table 5 tab5 tab5 tab5 tab5 tab5 tab5 tab5 tab5
Linked Data Documentation Table 6 tab6 tab6 tab6 tab6 tab6 tab6 tab6 tab6
Fetal Death Documentation Table 1 fet1 fet1 fet1 fet1 fet1 fet1 fet1 fet1
Fetal Death Documentation Table 2 fet2 fet2 fet2 fet2 fet2 fet2 fet2 fet2
Fetal Death Documentation Table 3 fet3 fet3 fet3 fet3 fet3 fet3 fet3 fet3
Fetal Death Technical Appendix -- fdt fdt fdt fdt fdta fdta fdta
Technical Appendix -- Natality (files below for 1995-1996)
--
tan tan tan tan tan tan
    Definition of Live Birth
defnat
--
    History -- Natality
hisnat
    Sources of Data -- Natality Statistics
scenat
    Classification of Data -- Natality
clsnat
    Quality of Data -- Natality
quanat
    Computation of Rates and Other Measures -- Natality
cmpnat
    References -- Natality
refnat
Addendum to Technical Appendix -- Natality addmort addend1
--
addend2
Tables 4-1, 4-2, and 4-3
--
tables
Technical Appendix -- Mortality
tam
tam
tam
--
Addendum to Technical Appendix -- Mortality addmort addmort addmort addmort
--
Report on Infant Mortality Statistics rim95 rim96 rim97 rim98 rim99 rim00 rim01 rim02
Required State Fetal Death Reporting Dates
--
dates dates dates dates dates
Missing Data Report
--
miss miss miss miss miss
Contents Report cr95 cr96 cr97 cr98 cr99 cr00 cr01 cr01
Standard Death Certificate
sdc
Standard Birth Certificates
sbc49-55   sbc56-67   sbc68-77   sbc78-88   sbc89-02   sbc03

Contact data@nber.org with questions, comments, or suggestions.

Last Update: October 13, 2005 Created by Jean Roth October 10, 2000