In the period 1960-2000, male and female life expectancy increased by 8,2 and 10,5 years, respectively, in Catalonia, one of Spain’s Autonomous Regions, to one of the highest in the world. Initially, most gains were due to lower infant mortality, but as cardiovascular diseases declined...

Vital statistics generated through civil registration systems are the major source of continuous monitoring of births and deaths over time. The usefulness of vital statistics depends on their quality. In the second paper in this Series we propose a comprehensive and practical framework for...

Background Reliable information on causes of death is a fundamental component of health development strategies, yet globally only about one-third of countries have access to such information. For countries currently without adequate mortality reporting systems there are useful models other than...