Deaths, causes of mortality

Deaths, mortality, life expectancy

Death registers provide a means to measure variations in mortality. Deaths by sex and age are used to construct life tables which give life expectancy at birth, i.e. the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life. The mortality of children under the age of one year is also specifically calculated.

When a person dies, a doctor records the cause of death on a death certificate which is sent to INSERM where all causes of death are coded.