Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia   

Section of demography and health statistics

Milana Rakica 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Data on causes of death (COD) provide information on mortality patterns and form a major element of public health information.

COD data refer to the underlying cause which - according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) - is "the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury".

COD data are derived from death certificates. The medical certification of death is an obligation in Serbia. The information provided in the medical certificate of cause of death is coded into ICD codes according to the rules specified in the ICD.

Data are broken down by sex, 5-year age groups, cause of death and by residency and country of occurrence. For stillbirths and neonatal deaths additional breakdows might include age of mother.

Annual national data are provided in absolute number. 

The objective of the annual survey on deaths is to collect data on demographic and socio-economic features of deceased person, data on origin and cause of death, as well as data on demographic and socio-economic characteristics of mother of deceased infant.

According to the legal provisions on keeping the register of deaths, every death shall be entered in the register of deaths maintained for the area of its occurrence.

The data on deaths collected by registrars and delivered to the SORS regional departments.To each form on statistics of deaths, DEM-2, attached is a copy of the Death certificate that is completed by a medical doctor.

The SORS regional departments compile the filled forms, evaluate data coverage, accuracy and completeness of the information on the form DEM-2, send both forms to the districts’ institutes of public health (where the authorized medical doctor shall extract the codes for the underlying cause of death and nature of injury from the Death certificate and write in them into the form DEM-2) and carry out the complete DEM-2 form entry and data corrections.

The final evaluation, analysis, creation of tables and data publishing are carried out at the SORS.

The cause of death statistics data are total data including all deaths in Serbia or abroad of persons who are usual residents of Serbia at the time of their death. 

Public Health, Vital statistics

Causes of death (COD) statistics are based on information derived from the medical certificate of cause of death. COD target at the underlying cause of death, in accordance with the ICD-10 definition i.e. "the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury".

The concept of usual resident population applied in the 2011 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings was implemented in the Annual survey on deaths. According to this concept, a person is considered as an usual resident of the place where he/she spends most of his time, that is, day/night vacations, regardless of where he/she has a registered place of residence, with a duration of presence in or absence from the country: in total are also included citizens of the Republic of Serbia with absence abroad less than a year and foreign citizens who are present for more than a year in the Republic of Serbia.      

A stillborn is a child born or extracted from its mother's body without signs of life (absence of breathing, movement and heartbeat) and the duration of pregnancy is at least 28 weeks.  

The characteristics collected are: Gestational age, weight, crown-heel

The statistical units are the deceased persons and the stillborns, respectively.

Total population defined as usual resident population.

Neonatals of non-resident mothers are not considered as residents.

We do not include non-residents in our national statistics.

Our national statistics include all deaths of our residents abroad. Since we do not have the data on the couse of death for the cases that occured abroad, we use ICD10 code R99.

Republic of Serbia 

Starting from 1998 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not available data for AP Kosovo and Metohija therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Not applicable. 

The unit is number.

Data referred to the calendar year (2021).

Countries submitted data to Eurostat on the basis of a gentleman's agreement established in the framework Eurostat's Working Group on "Public Health Statistics" until data with reference year 2010. The first data submitted according to the Regulation (EU) No 328/2011 is data with reference year 2011.

A Regulation on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work (EC) No 1338/2008 was signed by the European Parliament and the Council on 16 December 2008. This Regulation is the framework of the data collection on the domain.

Within the context of this framework Regulation, a Regulation on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, as regards statistics on causes of death (EU) No 328/2011 was signed by the European Parliament and the Council on 5. April 2011.

National level:

  Official Statistics Law

  Decision on Official Statistics over the period 2021-2025

We share our data primarily with Eurostat and WHO, as well as a number of foreign and domestic institutions and individuals (Ministries, institutes and researchers). We share our data in accordance with official statistics law in Serbia, and decisions on official statistics over the period 2021-2025.

Confidentiality of the data is regulated with the official statistics law, rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia and guidelines on measures of data and information protection in SORS.

The handling of data is regulated by the rulebook on the method of using and providing the data produced by the Statistical office of the Republic of Serbia.

The data are published on the SORS website and in the SORS publications in accordance with the adopted Publishing Policy, and according to the Calendar of Publications.

Calendar of releases is available at SORS website.

The data obtained from statistical surveys of death, are published in accordance with publishing policy on the SORS website, in statistical releases, publications and in the database.  

Annual.

Not applicable.

Demography statistics 2021

Vital statistics 2021   

Data are available in the dissemination database at the SORS website.       

Not applicable.

On request, the access to anonymized microdata is ensured to scientific and research institutions.         

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Documents for COD are available in CIRCABC, Causes of Death section.

100%

Not applicable

The causes of death data are based on a regulation, which defines scope, definitions of variables and characteristics of the data.

Results of the current year are compared with the data of the previous and earlier years. If significant deviations are noticed in the presented data, reasons for their occurrence are considered.

The main users of statistical data are: government institutions, scientific institutions, individual requests, agencies and national organizations, international organizations, press etc.

A general user satisfaction survey is conducted every two years and the results are available on the SORS website (latest results for 2021). 

The statistical data were completely produced in accordance with the official statistics programme.

1. For mandatory variables: All except the non-residents who die in the country.  The NUTS2 of place of occurence and residence of the Serbian residents provided since reference year 2019.

2. For voluntary variables:  The underlying cause of death for stillbirths.

3. For additional variables:

• External CoD: Provided: Provided
• Place of occurrence for external CoD: Not provided
• Activity for external CoD: Not Provided

The data related to deaths occurred in Serbia are reliable. The data related to deaths of Serbian residents abroad are less detailed.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

According to legislation.

Starting from 1998 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not available data for AP Kosovo and Metohija therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

Not applicable.

Starting from 1998 the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia has not available data for AP Kosovo and Metohija therefore these data are not included in the coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total).

From 2000 onwards.

Statistics on deaths is the only source of data that shows the number and structure of deaths in the Republic of Serbia. 

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

All data are consistent.  

The cost and burden of the data collection is reduced by using validation and dissemination IT tools.

The cost and burden of the data collection is from national budget.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The source of data are local registers of deaths and health institutions. National statistical data collection is carried out through the following forms: 1. Statistical form on death, 2. Death certificate, 3. Statistical form on birth, 4. Birth certificate.

Annually.

Death certificate (medical certificate of cause of death), that is primary source of data regarding causes of death statistics, is compliant with standard international form of medical certificate. It is filled by certifiers - MD (when death occurs out of the health facilities) or by medical doctors employed at health facility (when death occurs within the health facility). Cause of death must be indicated on the death certificate according to the ICD rules and procedures, and can only be certified by the medical doctor. Medical doctors – “ cause of death supervisors” employed at districts’  institutes of public health (24) receive copy of death certificate, check validity of data, record underlying cause of death into the statistical form of death, and send both forms to the local statistical offices.       

Table on certification (Percentage)

Data on stillbirths are not collected from the death certificate. They are collected as well as data of births (subgroup stillbirths) data is sourced from birth certificates. 

Data on deceased persons of all age groups (Including neonates) are collected on the same death certificate.

Data validation is use of basic tool in the data editing procedure –a purposeful and consistent set of logical rules used for systematic checkup of data accuracy, their consistency and checkup of data distribution.

Description of coding procedure (central level, distributed among other bodies, etc.):

Death certificate is filled by certifiers - MD (when death occurs out of the health facilities) or by medical doctors employed at health facility (when death occurs within the health facility), including coding. 

Description of the procedures to detect errors (i.e.errors such as potential inconsistency in the death certificate or error due to mistake when filling the deaths certificates):

Medical doctors – “ cause of death supervisors” employed at districts’  institutes of public health (24) receive copy of death certificate, check validity of data, record underlying cause of death into the statistical form of death, and send both forms to the local statistical offices.      

Description of the measures taken in order to solve detected errors:

Each error noted by medical doctors – “ cause of death supervisors” (employed at districts’  institutes of public health) have to be corrected according to the ICD rules and procedures.

Coding performed by a certifier:

Cause of death must be indicated on the death certificate according to the ICD rules and procedures, and can only be certified by the medical doctor. 

Estimation of the percentage of autopsy from which information is available for coding:

Not applicable.  

Description of double coding exercises and rate of codification errors for underlying cause of death:

Double coding exercises are not performed.

ICD codes for the underlying cause (% of the Total)

Unknown country/region (%) for residents and non-residents who died in the country

Local registers are used as criteria for the validation of coverage.

The final control data, creation of tables and data publishing are carried out at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

None