CDC - Wonder - Natality

"This dataset reports statistics for births occurring within the United States to U.S. residents. Data are available by a variety of demographic characteristics, such as state and county of mother's residence, mother's race, and mother's age, and health and medical items. The data are derived from birth certificates issued in years 1995-2021." In accordance with the CDC, birth counts of 9 or fewer or birth rates based on counts of nine or fewer are not displayed. https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/natality.html

Public

Methodology

Link To Data Source

https://wonder.cdc.gov/natality.html

Why Was The Data Collected?

"In the United States, State laws require birth certificates to be completed for all births, and Federal law mandates national collection and publication of births and other vital statistics data. The National Vital Statistics System, the Federal compilation of this data, is the result of the cooperation between the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the States to provide access to statistical information from birth certificates." (source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/births.htm)

How Was The Data Collected?

"Standard forms for the collection of the data and model procedures for the uniform registration of the events are developed and recommended for State use through cooperative activities of the States and NCHS." (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/births.htm)

Who Collected The Data?

Oklahoma State Department of Health in collaboration with health care providers

Who Owns The Data?

Oklahoma State Department of Health, the National Center for Health Statistics, CDC

Who Was Included Or Excluded From The Sample?

Live births in the United States, 1995-2021; does not include stillbirths Confidentiality constraints: "vital statistics data are suppressed due to confidentiality constraints, in order to protect personal privacy." (more information: https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/natality.html#Additional)

Notes On Data Usage Conditions

Data is publicly available on the CDC WONDER online database.

Analysis

Source Categories

Categories

Analysis

Why Were These Categories Used?

The CDC does not share how all of the categories are selected and used. A full breakdown of the categories are available here: https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/natality-expanded.html There is some explanation for the race category shifts in certain years: "The race group categories changed from 8 categories for the years 1995-2002 to 4 "bridged-race" categories for the years 2003-2006." "'Bridged-race' categories are not available in the expanded database for 2016 and later years. "Bridged-race" categories are not available after year 2019." (source: https://wonder.cdc.gov/natality.html)

Who Selected The Categories?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Who Is Defining The Categories?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Who Is Defining The Categories?

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Interpretation

Associated Topics Covered
Fertility
Children