National Vital Statistics Reports

Volume 57, Number 6

Births, Marriages, Divorces, and Deaths: Provisional Data for March 2008

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Technical Notes      List of Detailed Tables      Acknowledgments      Copyright  information

Suggested citation      Tables

Technical Notes

Data shown here are provisional and include only events occurring within the United States (50 states and the District of Columbia). Provisional birth, death, and infant death data in this report are based on a combination of counts of events provided by each reporting area and registered vital events processed into National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) data files. Some of these may not have occurred in the specified month of this report. Monthly provisional birth, death, and infant death data may be updated during the course of a data year. Updates based on registered events will be included in the month the event occurred. However, updates based on counts received from the states may include the event in the month it was processed rather than the month in which it occurred. This may result in a low figure for a given month followed by a high figure for the month(s) in which the delayed records were processed. Once the provisional data year has ended, updates cease. Thus, provisional birth, death, and infant death data may not accurately track either the preliminary or the final number of events registered.

Marriage and divorce data in this report are counts of all events occurring in the state that were received in the registration offices during the 1-month period. Divorce figures include reported annulments. There is considerable variability among the states in the procedures that are used to submit the counts of marriages and divorces to NCHS and in the extent to which the states update their counts of marriages and divorces as new information is received. Therefore, counts vary in their completeness. Marriage and divorce counts, unlike other provisional data, may be updated after the end of a data year if final counts are provided by the state. Readers seeking further information on this should contact NCHS at births@cdc.gov.

Tables A and B provide monthly, year-to-date, and 12-month ending counts and rates for births, deaths (excluding fetal deaths), and marriages, and 12-month ending rates for divorces. These counts include events occurring in the United States to nonresidents of the United States and differ from the data in preliminary and final reports that are based on place of residence. Birth, death, and infant death figures (death and infant death figures exclude fetal deaths) in Table 1 for each state are estimates by state of residence. These estimates are derived by applying adjustment ratios to the number of events recorded as occurring in the state during a 1-month period. The adjustment ratios for each data year represent the observed relationship between final state occurrence figures and final state residence figures for the 3 most recent years for which final data were available and are expressed as a single ratio for each state for births and deaths. Monthly state marriage and divorce figures shown in Table 2 represent the actual count of all events occurring in the state (state of occurrence) and are not adjusted by state of residence.

Until 1998, provisional totals for births, marriages, and divorces for the entire United States included corrections for observed differences between provisional and final figures. These corrections compensated for delays in reporting. Beginning with data for January 1998, these monthly corrections for births, marriages, and divorces have been discontinued. Further information on these changes has been provided in the National Vital Statistics Reports presenting provisional data for January (vol. 48, no. 1), February (vol. 48, no. 2), and March (vol. 48, no. 4) 1999, available from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs.

NCHS has ceased publishing divorce counts and rates based on provisional data from the combined 50 states because it is no longer statistically feasible to calculate estimates of monthly divorce counts for nonreporting states (California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, and Minnesota). Instead, NCHS publishes only the 12-month divorce rates shown in Table A, based solely on the combined counts and populations for reporting states and the District of Columbia. Aggregate 1-month, cumulative counts and rates, and 12-month counts for divorces have been discontinued because of their very limited usefulness when based on less than the full complement of states. Monthly marriage and divorce counts as reported by each state will continue to be shown in Table 2.

In 2006, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana temporarily suspended collection of marriage counts (Louisiana does not provide NCHS with divorce counts; see previous paragraph). National marriage counts and rates shown in Table A for 2006 exclude Louisiana data. Louisiana reinstated the collection of marriage counts in 2007. Therefore, monthly and year-to-date marriage counts and rates for 2007 include Louisiana data; however, 12-month ending rates for 2007, which include marriages occurring in 2006, exclude Louisiana data. Populations for these marriage rates exclude Louisiana.

Population estimates used for computing rates originate from the U.S. Census Bureau and are based on the 2000 census. Monthly rates are based on populations estimated for the specific month. Year-to-date rates are averages of monthly rates that have been weighted by the number of days in the corresponding months. Rates for 12-month periods are the sum of events for the period per population estimated at the midpoint of the period. Populations have been estimated by NCHS for the 12-month divorce rates based on the 44 reporting states and the District of Columbia. Monthly infant mortality rates are based on relatively few events and are highly variable. As a result, NCHS has discontinued publishing provisional monthly state specific infant mortality rates. National monthly infant mortality rates will continue to be available in Tables A and B.

List of Detailed Tables

1. Provisional number of live births and deaths: Each state and Puerto Rico, March 2007 and 2008, and cumulative figures, 2006-2008
2. Provisional number of marriages and divorces: Each state and Puerto Rico, March 2007 and 2008, and cumulative figures, 2006-2008

Acknowledgments

This report was prepared by Betzaida Tejada-Vera of the Mortality Statistics Branch (MSB) and Paul D. Sutton of the Reproductive Statistics Branch (RSB) of the Division of Vital Statistics (DVS) under the general direction of Stephanie J. Ventura, Chief, RSB, and Charles J. Rothwell, Director, DVS. Connie Gentry, Kathy Holiday, Chrissy Jarman, Susan McBroom, and Pam Stephenson of the Data Acquisition and Evaluation Branch (DAEB) were responsible for acquisition of the provisional data. Brenda Green, Kryn Krautheim, David Justice, Jenny Justice, and Adrienne Rouse, also of DAEB, evaluated the quality of the provisional data. This report was edited by Demarius V. Miller and Laura Drescher, CDC/CCHIS/ NCHM/Division of Creative Services, Writer-Editor Services Branch, and typeset by Jacqueline M. Davis of CDC/CCHIS/NCHM/Division of Creative Services.

Copyright information

All material appearing in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; citation as to source, however, is appreciated.

Suggested citation

Tejada-Vera B, Sutton PD. Births, marriages, divorces, and deaths: Provisional data for March 2008. National vital statistics reports; vol 57, no 6. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2008.

Tables

Table A

See footnotes at end of Table A3

See footnotes at end of Table A3

... Category not applicable.

--- Data not available.

¹ All marriage figures for 2006 and 12-month ending marriage figures for 2007 exclude data for Louisiana. Populations for these marriage rates also exclude Louisiana.

² Divorce figures exclude data for California, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, and Minnesota. Populations for divorce rates also exclude these states.

NOTE: Figures include all revisions received from the states and, therefore, may differ from those previously published; see "Technical Notes."

Table B

See footnotes at end of Table B2

¹ The method of seasonal adjustment, developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, is described in The X-11 Variant of the Census Method II Seasonal Adjustment Program, Technical Paper No. 15 (1967 revision).

NOTE: Figures include all revisions received from the states and, therefore, may differ from those previously published; see "Technical Notes."

Table 1

See footnotes at end of Table 1b

NOTE: Figures include all revisions received from the states and, therefore, may differ from those previously published; see "Technical Notes."

Table 2

See footnotes at end of Table 2b

--- Data not available.

¹Figures based on monthly counts and may be underreported.

²Figures for marriages are licenses issued for some counties.

³Figures for marriages are marriage licenses issued.

NOTE: Figures include all revisions received from the states and, therefore, may differ from those previously published; see "Technical Notes."

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