Causes of death

Statistics on the causes of death of the population provide important information on public health. The statistics are compiled on the underlying cause of death, defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "a disease or injury that caused a series of pathologies that resulted in death, or the circumstances of an accident or violence that caused a fatal injury.”

• Died and stillborn.

Died usual residents of Latvia. Non-residents of Latvia who died are not included. The newborn or stillborn child of a non-resident mother is considered resident if the father is resident. If both mother and father are non-resident, non-resident.

Latvian usual residents who die during a temporary stay abroad are included in the statistics - if a medical certificate or certificate of cause of death is obtained, then the cause of death can be recorded. If there is no information on the cause of death, the recorded cause of death is R99 (according to ICD-10).

• Commission Regulation (EU) No 328/2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, as regards statistics on causes of death. 
• Law on Registration of Civil Status Acts.
• Cabinet Regulation No. 241 By-laws of the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control of 3 April 2012.

Database of the official statistics portal:

Leading causes of death

Perinatal, infant and children mortality

Maternal mortality

Indicators on the causes of death in EU countries

Statistics on causes of death and infant mortality in EU countries are published in the Eurostat database.

Note: The Eurostat database also includes information on deaths of non-residents of Latvia.

Data on causes of death by sex and age group are available for the period since 2010 (Centre for Disease Prevention and Control's (CDPC) data).

Data on the leading causes of death by region, State city and municipality are available for the period since 2017 (CDPC's data).

Data on infant, perinatal and children mortality and maternal mortality are available for the period since 2008 (CDPC's data). Certain indicators are available for the period since 1920 (CSB's data).

Data on the number of deaths are published in:

• demography statistics (CSB estimation) and
• statistics on causes of death (estimation of the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDPC))

The CDPC compiles information only on cases for which a medical certificate or statement (for residents of Latvia who have died abroad) has been received regarding the cause of death or a court judgment regarding the recognition of a person as dead.

Coherence between CSB and CDPC data

The CSB recalculates the preliminary weekly and monthly data in May of the following year and includes in the final data the persons included in the population estimate (Usually resident population of Latvia) who died while temporarily staying abroad, as well as the persons registered as dead after the publication of the preliminary data for the reference period. CDPC data include information only on those Latvian residents who died abroad and for whom a certificate or statement regarding the cause of death is received.

In cases where a missing person is declared dead after a long period of time or an initially unidentified dead person is identified after a period of time, the causes of death statistics (CDPC) are updated but the published demographic data (CSB) are not recalculated.

The database of the causes of death of Latvian residents, in which data is collected using information from two certificates - medical certificates on the cause of death and medical certificates on the occurrence of perinatal death, as well as court judgments on persons who have been declared dead.

According to Section 38 of the Law on Registration of Civil Status Acts, the fact of death shall be notified to the General Registry institution no later than within six working days from the moment the death occurred or the deceased was found, Section 39 also defining the persons who have a duty to notify regarding the fact of death.

The medical death certificate is registered at the General Registry institution where the deceased person lives or where the deceased person was found.

A medical treatment institution or a medical practitioner has a duty to notify the registry within eight days of stillbirths or deaths at birth. Stillbirths and deaths at birth shall be registered only in the birth register and shall be assigned a personal identity number (indicating 'Child is stillborn' or 'Child died at birth '), but shall not be entered in the death register. Those who have lived for only a few minutes have both their fact of birth and fact of death registered.

Once a month, the registries submit to the Center for Disease Prevention and Control the medical certificates on the cause of death and the medical certificates on the occurrence of perinatal death registered during the previous month, as well as court judgments on persons who have been declared dead.

Each cause of death is coded according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10^th Revision (ICD-10). Based on the automated coding system, the underlying cause of death is determined. Statistics are compiled on the basis of the underlying cause of death.