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Vital Statistics – What the Numbers Really Mean
Vital statistics are compiled, updated, and published on a regular basis. Vital
statistics are invaluable when it comes to social and population trend studies
and are also useful when making crucial administrative and/or business
decisions.
By definition,
vital statistics pertain to a compilation of numerical data on basic vital
occurrences or events in the human population. Vital events include births,
marriages, divorces, annulment, immigration, mortality and illnesses among
others.
Vital statistics
data can come from censuses and from registrars’ reports as well as other vital
records from the legal and health departments.
There are two
categories for vital statistics – the crude rates and the refined rates.
Crude rates are more general in nature and pertain to vital statistics for the
human population in general. Refined vital statistics rates, on the other hand,
are more specific and articulates a particular segment of the population like
age, gender, race, location, etc.
Vital Statistics in Demographics
Demographic
studies
analyze the social characteristics of a people and their development and/or
evolution through time and history. In most cases, vital statistics play a major
role in demographics and vital statistics data even became the lifeblood of many
demographic studies and analyses.
Some vital
statistics data that prove useful in the interdisciplinary field of demography
are as follows:
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Vital
statistics pertaining to age, ethnicity, parentage, civil status, occupation,
and physical condition are used to determine the size and density of a segment
of the population.
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Birth,
marriage, and death occurrences are revealed in vital statistics data and
reflect any changes in population growth.
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Vital
statistics data on migration activities are used to determine the effects of
immigration on the economic conditions of a population.
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Vital
statistics on crime, illegitimacy, and suicide
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Economic and
social statistics
History of
Vital Statistics
The history of
vital statistics dates back to the earliest civilizations. Back then, the number
of people, animals, and other inanimate objects were recorded on animal skins,
slabs, wooden sticks, and walls of caves using symbols or graphic
representation.
Conversely,
Babylonians used clay tablets to record their inventories of agricultural
produce and of commodities. The Egyptians, in the meantime, demonstrated their
knowledge in vital statistics and demographics by analyzing the population and
material resources of the nation prior to the construction of the pyramids in 31st
century B.C.
The bible also
provides several accounts where a recording of vital statistics took place. The
books of Numbers and 1 Chronicles give reference to population
censuses that was conducted among the Israelites and to material wealth
inventory of various Jewish tribes respectively.
Evidence also
shows that numerical vital statistics records have existed in China as early as
2000 B.C. Censuses also existed in ancient Greece since 594 B.C. and the vital
statistics records were used as a basis for taxation.
However, the Roman
Empire remains to be the first government to conduct an extensive gathering of
vital statistics data from the territories it controlled. The practice of data
gathering continued throughout the middle ages up to our present time.
Vital statistics
is a reliable method to accurately describe in numeric values the economic,
social, political, biological, physical, and psychological state of a
population. Vital statistics is raw information that needs further processing
and proper interpretation. Without proper analytical methods applied, vital
statistics render no value, function, or significance to the people where the
data originated.
More
information about vital statistics can be found at
RecordsSiteReview’s
Birth Records section.
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