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Deaths registered with a cause

For what share of deaths is a cause of death officially recorded, in each country?

116 of 116 shown in the list

% of deaths registered with a cause

  1. Andorra100.0% 2015
  2. Argentina100.0% 2016
  3. Armenia100.0% 2016
  4. Australia100.0% 2016
  5. Austria100.0% 2017
  6. Belarus100.0% 2014
  7. Belgium100.0% 2016
  8. Brunei100.0% 2016
  9. Bulgaria100.0% 2015
  10. Canada100.0% 2015
  11. Croatia100.0% 2016
  12. Cuba100.0% 2016
  13. Czechia100.0% 2017
  14. Denmark100.0% 2015
  15. Dominica100.0% 2015
  16. Estonia100.0% 2016
  17. Fiji100.0% 2012
  18. Finland100.0% 2016
  19. France100.0% 2015
  20. Germany100.0% 2016
  21. Greece100.0% 2016
  22. Grenada100.0% 2017
  23. Guatemala100.0% 2016
  24. Hungary100.0% 2017
  25. Iceland100.0% 2017

Source: Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics, World Health Organization (WHO), uri: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.1?lang=en, Completeness of death registration with cause-of-death information (%), via the World Bank. Data for 2010 to 2017. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 116 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Andorra at 100.0% (2015) and the lowest is India at 10.0% (2011).
  • The middle value (the median) is 95.5%.

What it counts

Deaths registered with cause-of-death information as a share of all deaths, as compiled by the World Health Organization. A registered death with a cause is the base of the legal record of a death, of inheritance and of public health.

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

Only countries that report cause of death appear, mostly with data from different years, and the quality of the recorded cause varies. The figure does not measure civil registration as a whole.

Source

Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics, World Health Organization (WHO), uri: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.1?lang=en: Completeness of death registration with cause-of-death information (%), via the World Bank, compiled in World Bank, World Development Indicators. Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Deaths registered with a cause [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/death-registration-with-cause. Data: Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics, World Health Organization (WHO), uri: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.1?lang=en, Completeness of death registration with cause-of-death information (%), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.REG.DTHS.ZS (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/death-registration-with-cause). Data: Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics, World Health Organization (WHO), uri: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.1?lang=en, via World Bank, World Development Indicators.

BibTeX

@misc{deathregistrationwithcause2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Deaths registered with a cause},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/death-registration-with-cause},
  note = {Data: Global Health Observatory Data Repository/World Health Statistics, World Health Organization (WHO), uri: http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.1?lang=en, Completeness of death registration with cause-of-death information (%), via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.REG.DTHS.ZS. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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