Enquiries, Sources – Cause of death statisticsOverview

Short description	The cause of death statistics provide information on mortality trends in Switzerland and causes of death. It allows us to draw important conclusions on the health of the population and on trends over time, to point out emerging developments and to indicate preventive or curative measures that are likely to extend the life expectancy of the population.
Responsible agency	Swiss Federal Statistical Office
Responsible service	Health
Responsible person and information	Dr. Med. Chantal Violand, 032 713 68 36, chantal.violand@bfs.admin.ch Information service: 032 713 67 00 gesundheit@bfs.admin.ch
Conducted by	Federal Statistical Office (FSO)
Legal basis	Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992 (RS 431.01) Ordinance of 30 June 1993 on the Conduct of Federal Statistical Surveys (RS 431.012.1) The Swiss Civil Code of 10 December 1907 (RS 210)
Type of enquiry	The cause of death statistics is a comprehensive survey based on data from civil registries and death certificates issued by doctors. Its findings are published in the form of absolute figures per 100,000 residents (permanent resident population at mid-year according to the statistics on the annual state of the population, ESPOP).
Statistical basis and units of enquiry	Deceased persons in the permanent resident population
Features registered	Causes of death (ICD-10) by: age sex civil status occupation commune of residence (civil domicile) nationality
Degree of regionalisation	Commune
Date survey conducted	Calendar year
Date of survey	On an ongoing basis
Periodicity	Annual
Available since	First reference year of this statistic: 1876 Available in electronic form since 1969 Data available 18 months after the end of the reference year
Statistical quality of data	This ongoing survey makes it possible to establish long time series. Good international comparability because of standardisation by the WHO. Almost complete data coverage (3% of data missing). Weak points in this statistic: Changes made every 10 to 20 years to the World Health. Organisation's International Classification of Diseases (ICD) cause breaks in the time series. The causes of death of persons who are domiciled in Switzerland but who died abroad are often unknown.
Revision	1995: transition from ICD-8 to ICD-10 and adjustment of the coding rules to the international standard.
Last Update	20.05.2011

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