The Population Division works to strengthen the evidence base on global, regional, and country-level mortality levels and trends by compiling, assessing and analysing data from a wide variety of sources. A major component of this work is the development of new methods and tools for the estimation and analysis of mortality, particularly for countries where death registration data are deficient.

The Population Division produces estimates of various mortality indicators, including numbers of deaths, life expectancy, child mortality, and adult mortality in the biennial Revisions of World Population Prospects. The Division also issues technical reports, fact sheets, wall charts and other materials to disseminate information on mortality to a variety of consumers. These products provide analyses of the levels, trends and differentials in mortality and causes of death, and also identify emerging issues affecting mortality trends.

In addition, the Population Division provides demographic expertise to inter-agency initiatives on issues related to mortality and health, including the UN Inter-agency Group on Child Mortality Estimation, the Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group, and the UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling and Projections. The Division collaborates actively with academic researchers in the development of new methods for the estimation and projection of mortality, and convenes periodic expert group meetings on technical and substantive issues related to mortality.

Data

• World Mortality Report 2019 CD-Rom
• World Population Prospects - Mortality estimates and projections
• World Mortality Report 2017 CD-Rom

Publications

• World Mortality 2019 Report
• World Mortality 2019 Highlights
• World Mortality 2019 Data Booklet
• Maternal mortality: Levels and trends, 2000 to 2017 [Announcement]
• Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: United Nations Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), Report 2019 [Announcement]
• Technical Paper No. 2019/2 - R Scripts for computing adult and maternal mortality from DHS sibling survival histories
• Technical Paper No. 2019/1 - A Sensitivity Analysis of Parameters Used in Spectrum's Aids Impact Model: The Role of the Sex Ratio of HIV Incidence and Adult Treatment on Mortality Levels and Trends
• Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2018
• World Mortality Report 2017 Highlights
• World Mortality 2017: Data Booklet
• Population Facts No. 2017/9, December 2017 - Life expectancy at birth increasing in less developed regions
• Population Facts No. 2017/6, December 2017 - Africa unlikely to achieve SDG target on child mortality without unprecedented effort to accelerate progress
• Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2017
• World Mortality Report 2015 Highlights
• World Mortality Report 2015
• World Mortality Wallchart 2015
• Population Facts No. 2015/3, December 2015 - Inequality in early childhood survival
• Technical paper No. 2015/1 - The Impact of Socio-Economic Inequalities on Early Childhood Survival: Results from the Demographic and Health Surveys
• Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2015 Report
• Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2015
• No. 2014/3 - The Impact of Including Reports from Male Respondents on Estimates of Maternal Mortality from Demographic and Health Surveys
• World Mortality Report 2013
• Sex Differentials in Childhood Mortality
• Changing Levels and trends in Mortality: The role of patterns of death by cause

Methods and Software

• Technical paper No. 2017/5 - Overview of the principles and international experiences in implementing record-linkage mechanisms to assess completeness of death registration
• Technical paper No. 2017/2 - Analytical Methods to Evaluate the Completeness and Quality of Death Registration: Current State of Knowledge
• CensusPRM - Workbook for estimating maternal mortality from census data
• Data inventory for information on the availability of data relevant for the estimation of adult and child mortality for each of the 201 countries or areas with at least 90,000 inhabitants in 2015
• Technical paper No. 2014/4 - Estimating Life Tables for Developing Countries
• MORTPAK - The United Nations Software Package for Mortality Measurement
• Technical paper No. 2011/2 - Mortality Estimates from Major Sample Surveys: Towards the Design of a Database for the Monitoring of Mortality Levels and Trends
• Extended Model Life Tables (Documentation and Dataset)
• Methods for Estimating Adult Mortality

Events

• United Nations Expert Group Meeting on "Methodology and lessons learned to evaluate the completeness and quality of vital statistics data from civil registration" - New York, 21-22 October 2016
• United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Mortality: Priorities for improved survival: ICPD beyond 2014 - New York, 21-22 October 2013
• United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Mortality Crises: Conflicts, Violence, Famine, Natural Disasters and the Growing Burden of Non-communicable Diseases - New York, 14-15 November 2011
• Expert Group Meeting on Health, Mortality and Development - New York, 10-12 November 2009

External Websites

• Child Mortality Estimates - CME Info
• UN Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-agency Group
• UNAIDS Reference Group on Estimates, Modelling and Projections