Preliminary data on births and deaths--United States, 1995.

Timely and accurate health data are essential to public health surveillance efforts for monitoring trends in vital events, diseases, injuries, and disabilities. More timely release of accurate vital statistics has been identified as a priority by health agencies at the federal, state, and local levels and in academia and the private sector. In response to the need for faster release of high-quality data, CDC's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), in collaboration with state vital statistics offices, has initiated a new system to speed the transmission of vital statistics from states to CDC. This initiative has resulted in the availability of near-final natality and mortality data approximately 1 year before final data usually are released. This report presents the selected findings of an analysis of preliminary birth and death records for 1995. The number of births in the United States declined for the fifth consecutive year to an estimated 3,900,089 in 1995, 1% fewer than the final 1994 total of 3,952,767 (Table 1). In addition, the estimated number of deaths in 1995 totaled 2,312,180 (Table 2), 1% more than the previous record high of 2,278,994 in 1994.