National Vital Statistics System

It involves coordination between the different state health departments of the US states and the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The National Vital Statistics System includes the following data sets and publications:

• Vital Statistics of the United States: The data set goes back to 1890.
• National Vital Statistics Report: This is a monthly report that goes back to January 1998. The earlier version of this report, called the Monthly Vital Statistics Report, goes back to July 1964.
• Other reports

All data is accessible online on the NVSS website.

The following programs are related to the National Vital Statistics System:

• Linked Birth and Infant Death Data Set
• National Survey of Family Growth
• Matched Multiple Birth Data Set
• National Death Index
• National Maternal and Infant Health Survey
• National Mortality Followback Survey

Academic research

Data from the National Vital Statistics System has been cited in academic research on many topics, including births and homicides.

A 1995 paper by Weed for Population Index described the history of NVSS and how to prepare it for the next century.

Use as a standard source

Libraries and other link collections have pointed to the NVSS as an official data source for the vital statistics of the United States.