Federal Statistical Office FSO

Federal Statistical Office FSO /Division Health and Social Affairs/Section Health, Causes of Death Statistics

Federal Statistical Office FSO/Division Health and Social Affairs

Espace dee l'Europe10

CH-2010 Neuchatel 

Switzerland

26 June 2025

26 June 2025

26 June 2025

Data on causes of death (CoD) provide information on mortality patterns and form a major element of public health information.

CoD data refer to the underlying cause which - according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) - is "the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury".

CoD data are derived from death certificates. The information provided in the medical certificate of cause of death is mapped to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).

Eurostat's CoD statistics build on standards set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) 

The regional breakdown is based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 2).

Classification and updates applied by years

Public Health.

Concepts and definitions are described in the Commission regulation (EU) No 328/2011 in articles 2 and 3.

No additional definition.

Stillbirth is defined as all births after gestination of 22 weeks (>=22+0), where the child shows no signs of life at birth.

The statistical units are the deceased persons and the stillborns, respectively.

Residence in Switzerland at the time of death.

No.

Non-residents are not included in the national statistics.

Yes.

Switzerland.

Time series for most EU-28 countries and EFTA are available from 1994 onwards (Belgium, Germany: 1992, Ireland: 1993, Switzerland: 1969). For some countries data are only available from 1995 (Bulgaria), 1996 (Latvia and Slovakia), 1999 (Cyprus, Poland and Romania) or 2010 (Liechtenstein) onwards.

Note that due to the fact that 2011 data is the first data collection with a legal basis (and few changes in the requested variables and breakdowns), the data between 1994-2010 and starting from 2011 are not always comparable (In part due to the different groupings of causes of deaths). Moreover time series for data on stillbirths starts in 2011 and no information on previous data is available.

Not applicable.

The unit is number. The data are published in absolute numbers, crude death rate and standadised death rate.

2023.

CoD data was submitted to Eurostat on the basis of a gentleman's agreement established in the framework Eurostat's Working Group on "Public Health Statistics" until data with reference year 2010.

A Regulation on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work (EC) No 1338/2008 was signed by the European Parliament and the Council on 16 December 2008. This Regulation is the framework of the data collection on the domain.

Within the context of this framework Regulation, a Regulation on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, as regards statistics on causes of death (EU) No 328/2011 was signed by the European Parliament and the Council on 5 April 2011. 

CoD data according to this regulation is submitted to Eurostat since reference year 2011.

Eurostat, WHO, National health institutions, scientific research institutes, media.

Law on personal data protection.

All age groups showing a total mortality of less than 4 cases are considered as confidential. Therefore, any 'confidential' agegroup is grouped with another one to have higher numbers. In practice, this problem mainly occurs for young ages so, either the ages from 0 to 14 years old, or the ages from 0 to 14 and 15 to 24 years old are grouped. The age groups considered as confidential show then the value ':' and the age group '0-14y' (and '15-24y' if needed) shows the sum of all ages before 15 years old (or between 15 and 24 years old). In addition, special measures for ensuring confidentiality may be taken for small countries.

For stillbirth and neonatal figures, no breakdown by parity is displayed to ensure confidentiality.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.

Annual.

Annual publication of COD data in Switzerland.

Annual diffusion of tables and ad-hoc publications.

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 - STATPOP since 2010).

No public accessible online COD database, but it is planned to be implemented in future.

The stistics of the causes of death are available and accessible on the Federal statistical office website.

No dissementation of microdata.

Switzerland delivers COD annual data to the WHO.

No.

Documents are available in causes of death section.

Documents for COD are avilable in CIRCABC, causes of death section.

The quality of COD data is subject to the way in which the information on causes of deathe is reported and classified in each country. FSO follows the standard rules of ICD-10 for coding causes of death data.  The COD data are relatively homogeneous among European countries. 

The causes of death are based on a regulation, which defines scope, definitions of variables and characteristics of the data.

A quality assessment of Eurostat's COD statistics was organized in May and June 2008. In that framework, a questionnaire was sent to Eurostat's partners for COD statistics and a user survey was set up on Eurostat website, for which 25 partners and 34 users replied. A questionnaire was also filled by responsible people of COD statistics in Eurostat. 

In Switzerland, the main users of COD data are research institutes, universities, cantonal statistical offices, health observatories, public government agencies, tumor registries, media and citizens at Swiss and international levels
Users' needs was not formally assessed in Switzerland. Users' feedbacks and requests are taken into account as far as possible.

The COD users' satisfaction was not formally assessed in Switzerland. Users' feedbacks and requests are taken into account as far as possible.

All data received are disseminated on Eurostat's website if the consistency of the dataset is good.

1. For mandatory variables:

 100%

2. For voluntary variables:

 100%

3. For additional variables:

• External CoD

 Not available

• Place of occurrence for external CoD

 Not available

• Activity for external CoD

 Not available

Good.

Not applicable. Data collection is from administrative sources.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable. Data collection is from administrative sources.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

From data collection with reference year 2011 onwards, Eurostat asks for the submission of final data at national and regional level and related metadata for the year N at N+24 months, according to the Implementing Regulation (EC) No. 328/2011, Article 4.

Coding and transmission are equal for all regions.

Not applicable.

None.

None.

Not applicable.

Not applicable, only annual data are available.

Not applicable.

COD data and Demographic data are based on a common database. There is no inconsistency.

The cost and burden of the data collection is reduced by using validation and dissemination IT tools

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Individual death cases received from the Swiss civil state registers (Complete geographical coverage and COD provided individually (paper or electronically by the reporter (Physician) in parallel.

On a ongoing basis.

Not applicable.

Table on certification (Percentage)

There is a special death certificate for stillbirth.

The system of causes of death registration is directly linked to the system of civil state registration. All deaths occuring in Switzerland (where you find an identifyable dead body) and all deaths of Swiss residents occuring abroad (reported according to the regulations of  the International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS; in French-language: Commission Internationale de l'État CiviI - CIEC)) are registred.

Description of coding procedure (central level, distributed among other bodies, etc.):

Description of the procedures to detect errors (i.e.errors such as potential inconsistency in the death certificate or error due to mistake when filling the deaths certificates):

We have developed specific programs for the data cross-check and consolidation, we also have a query system do correct mistakes by certifiers or coders

Description of the measures taken in order to solve detected errors:

A well-devloped data control and cross-check with other partners such as cancer registries, ministry of health (for diseases of obligatory notification) and certifyings doctors.

Coding performed by a certifier:

Coding are performed by professional coding staff.

Estimation of the percentage of autopsy from which information is available for coding: Not available.

Description of double coding exercises and rate of codification errors for underlying cause of death:

We have developed a Quality Management System for the causes of death coding practice.

ICD codes for the underlying cause (% of the Total)

Unknown country/region (%) for residents and non-residents who died in the country

The system of causes of death registration is directly linked to the system of civil state registration. All deaths occuring in Switzerland (where you find an identifiable dead body) and all deaths of swiss residents occuring abroad (reported according to the regulations of  the International Commission on Civil Status (ICCS; in French-language: Commission Internationale de l'État CiviI - CIEC)) are registred.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No adjustement.

Not applicable.

No comment.