Annual summary of vital statistics--1987.

Data for this article, as in previous reports, are drawn principally from Monthly Vital Statistics Report, published in the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The international data come from the annual Demographic Yearbook and the quarterly Population and Vital Statistics Report, both published by the Statistical Office of the United Nations, which has also been kind enough to provide directly more recent data reported by various countries. US data for 1987 are estimates by place of occurrence, based upon a count of all certificates received in state offices between two dates, one month apart, regardless of when the event occurred. Mortality data by cause and age, however, come from the Current Mortality Sample, a systematic 10% of those certificates, and thus may not correspond to the actual month of death. For the US as a whole the estimates, with few exceptions, are close to the subsequent final figures. There are considerable variations in some states, however, particularly in comparing provisional figures by place of occurrence and final data by place of residence. State information should be interpreted cautiously. Careful attention should be paid to differing denominators when studying rates presented in this article. For overall rates, like the birth rate or death rate, the standard denominator is 1,000 total population. In instances in which more refined analysis is possible, other denominators are used, such as 100,000; the character of the population is specified. The particular denominator is indicated in the table or in the context.