National Vital Statistics System Mortality Data

Overview

CDC's National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) receives and analyzes data from death certificates. These mortality data help experts—

• Track characteristics of people who died in the United States
• Calculate life expectancy
• Compare U.S. death trends with trends in other countries

Visit the NVSS Mortality website to learn more about how the system tracks death data around the country.

Get NVSS data

NVSS captures all deaths from all causes across every state in the nation. You can access NVSS data through our publications, dashboards, and datasets.

• Vital Statistics Rapid Releases
  • Timely estimates of important health indicators using provisional data
• New publications featuring mortality data
• Mortality datasets and related documentation

Mortality topics

• Drug Overdose Deaths
• Leading Causes of Death
• Life Expectancy
• Maternal Mortality

Completing death certificates

CDC's National Center for Health Statistics provides training and instructional materials for completing death certificates.

NVSS Mobile App

The Cause-of-Death Mobile Application is a quick-reference guide. Doctors, medical students, medical examiners, coroners, and others can use the app to—

• Access instructions for and examples of filling out a death certificate
• Learn about the certifying medical information, a critical contribution to death certificates that is the responsibility of physicians
• Get more information about the U.S. vital registration system

Training

NVSS provides training to help you better understand why it is important to document causes of death completely and accurately on death certificates.

This training discusses—

• How cause-of-death information is used
• How to complete the death certificate
• Where to find additional information