1.1. Contact organisation
[EE1] Statistics Estonia
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Estonian Causes of Death Registry
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Paldiski road 80, 10617, Tallinn
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
8 October 2025
2.2. Metadata last posted
8 October 2025
2.3. Metadata last update
8 October 2025
3.1. Data description
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 information provided in the medical certificate of cause of death is mapped to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).
3.2. Classification system
Eurostat's CoD statistics build on standards set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).
The regional breakdown is based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS 2).
See Table 3.2 "Classification system" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
3.3. Coverage - sector
Public Health.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
Concepts and definitions are described in the Commission regulation (EU) No 328/2011 in articles 2 and 3.
3.4.1. National definition used for usual residency
Reported by certifier with death certificate (de facto).
3.4.2. Stillbirth definition and characteristics collected
>500g.
3.5. Statistical unit
The statistical units are the deceased persons and the stillborns, respectively.
3.6. Statistical population
The deceased.
3.6.1. Neonates of non-resident mothers
No, place of residence of neonates = place of residents of their mothers.
3.6.2. Non-residents
Data on non-residents are collected, but not published in national statistics.
3.6.3. Residents dying abroad
Partly available, as they are registered at Estonian foreign missions. Date of death may be available through Estonian Population Registry.
3.7. Reference area
Estonia, whole country.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Electronic database since 1989 data year.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
The unit is number.
2024 last provided to Eurostat.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
CoD data was submitted 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.
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.
CoD data according to this regulation is submitted to Eurostat since reference year 2011.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
According to Estonian Data Protection Act.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
GDPR, Estonia Data Protection Act.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Authorization by data protection officer and hierarhy including Director required to every dislosure of personal data.
8.1. Release calendar
Annual data (reference year + 5 months). Monthly preliminary data (reference month + 35 days)
8.2. Release calendar access
Please find information at this website Statistika Andmebaas.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Publication of annual data are accompanied with press release containing short analysis sent to the media, preliminary data are published monthly.
Annual, preliminary data monthly.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Please find information at this website (tai-statistika-alkoholist-ja-narkootikumide-uledoosist-pohjustatud-surmajuhtude-arv).
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Please find information at this website (Andmebaas).
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
NIHD website
| Year | Pageviews |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 17 842 |
| 2018 | 23 854 |
| 2019 | 19 442 |
| 2020 | 34 160 |
| 2021 | 38 677 |
Not available later.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Data may be disclosed on signed data request according to data protection legislation.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Data are transferred annually to Statistics Estonia, Eurostat and World Health Organization.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not available.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
Please find information at this website (Statistika Databases Andmebaas).
10.6.1. Metadata completeness - rate
100%
10.7. Quality management - documentation
- Denissov, Gleb (2016). Sharp decrease in observed cerebrovascular mortality may be due to certification and coding. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 44, 335−337.
- Innos, Kaire; Paapsi, Keiu; Alas, Indrek; Baum, Peep; Kivi, Martin; Kovtun, Mihhail; Okas, Rauno; Pokker, Helis; Rajevskaja, Olga; Rautio, Aleksandra; Saretok, Mikk; Valk, Elari; Žarkovski, Mihhail; Denissov, Gleb; Lang, Katrin (2022). Evidence of overestimating prostate cancer mortality in Estonia: a population-based study. Scandinavian Journal of Urology, 56 (5-6), 359−364. DOI: 10.1080/21681805.2022.2119274.
11.1. Quality assurance
Regular training courses to certifiers are provided in the premises of Institute for Heatlh Development, some hospitals and elsewhere as a part of training for data providers. All death certificates are reviewed by coders, who use IRIS software as data control tool. Coders partisipate to international activities for mortality coders. Logical checks on database are regularly applied.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Usabilty 91-95% according to " WHO methods and data sources for country‐level causes of death 2000‐2019" WHO, Geneva, 2020: pg 11. Please find information at this website (Data-quality).
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Policy makers, academic science, practicing doctors, relatives of the deceased, media and general public.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3. Completeness
Cause of death is provided in all cases, however there are unknown and ill-defined causes of death provided in ICD-10 classification.
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
1. For mandatory variables:
100%
2. For voluntary variables:
100%
3. For additional variables:
- External CoD: Yes
- Place of occurrence for external CoD: Yes
- Activity for external CoD: Yes
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Accuracy is very high.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable. Data collection is from administrative sources.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Possible delays in certification, especially fornsic cases, delivery of medical death certificate to the causes of death registry, coding rules are not always clear.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Definition of usual place of residents may differ from definitions used elsewhere, dterefore published data may differ because of coverage.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
Not applicable. Data are collected from administrative sources.
13.3.2. Measurement error
Not applicable.
13.3.3. Non response error
Not applicable, death certification is strictly mandatory.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
Not applicable.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
If death is regirested abroad, medical death certificate may be missing. Large number of Finnish death certificate are delivered through Estonian embassy in Helsinki, which may be a substantial part of Estonian residents dying abroad.
13.3.4. Processing error
Rules for selection of underlying cause of death are not always clear. Nordic-Baltic international seminar on this issue is held annually.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
See Table 14.1 "Timeliness" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
Not applicable.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Not applicable.
14.2. Punctuality
From data collection with reference year 2011 onwards, Eurostat asks for the submission of final data at national and regional level and related metadata for the year N at N+24 months, according to the Implementing Regulation (EC) No. 328/2011, Article 4.
2024's data vere submitted in October 2026, +22 months.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
See Table 14.2.1 "Punctuality - delivery and publication" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
15.1. Comparability - geographical
Estonia doesn’t have regions at NUTS level 2 and the geographical comparability is ensured.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable.
15.2. Comparability - over time
ICD-10 updates have impact on data comparabilty.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
Data series are comparable since introduction of ICD-10 with 1997 data year.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Data are validated with population register. Death counts are sligtly differnt form demographic statistics because of different definitions of place of usual residence.
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable, only annual data are available.
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable.
15.4. Coherence - internal
There are no inconsistencies between the neonates information provided in the General mortality dataset and in the Stillbirths and neonates dataset as both datasets are extracted from the same database.
Since 1st July 2019 data are collected electronically, more cost effective.
17.1. Data revision - policy
There is no data revision policy.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Not applicable.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Not applicable.
18.1. Source data
Medical death certificate is issued by physicians and forensic examiners (only MD-s). Since July 2019. it is an electronic document uploaded to E-Healt. Causes of Death Registry downloads data from E-Health every working day. Causes of death data are processed according to the WHO methodology. Additional information may be sought from certifier, usually by phone or e-mail.
All the future MD-s in Estonia are instructed to fill out medical death certificate in a mandatory course of pathological anatomy and legal medicine.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Annual.
18.3. Data collection
All the death certificated are reviewed centrally by mortality coders, underlying cause of death selected.
18.3.1. Certification
See Table 18.3.1 "Certification" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
18.3.2. Automated Coding
See Table 18.3.2 "Automated Coding" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
18.3.3. Underlying cause of death
See Table 18.3.3 "Underlying cause of death" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
18.3.4. Availability of multiple cause
See Table 18.3.4 "Availability of multiple cause" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
18.3.5. Stillbirths and Neonatal certificates
Perinatal death certificate with conditions of mother and child for perinatal period (stillbirths+deaths on the 1-st week of life).
18.4. Data validation
Data on date of death are transferred electronically from Estonian Population Registry. Logical checks applied on database to identify missing and impossible values.
18.4.1. Coding
- Description of coding procedure (central level, distributed among other bodies, etc.): Central, one medical coder.
- 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): Extraction from databased processed by IRIS, disagreements with manualluy selected UC reviewed by coders.
- Description of the measures taken in order to solve detected errors: Changes to database.
- Coding performed by a certifier: Voluntary, reviwed by coders.
- Estimation of the percentage of autopsy from which information is available for coding: 100% In case of autopsy death certificates are filled by pathologist.
- Description of double coding exercises and rate of codification errors for underlying cause of death: A random sample of death certificate is annualy coded by particpants of Nordic-Baltic mortality group and results discussed on face-to-face meeting.
18.4.2. Unspecified CoD code
See Table 18.4.2 "Unspecified CoD Code" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1"
18.4.3. Unknown country or region
See Table 18.4.3. "Unknown country or region" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1"
18.4.4. Validation of the coverage
Data on date of death and place of registration (Civil Registration Office or embassy) transferred electroniacally from Estonian Population Registry as well as names and personal ID of the deceased.
18.5. Data compilation
Not applicable.
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
Not applicable.
18.6. Adjustment
There is no adjustment.
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Not applicable.
Electronic death certification introduced on 1st July 2019.
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 information provided in the medical certificate of cause of death is mapped to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD).
8 October 2025
Concepts and definitions are described in the Commission regulation (EU) No 328/2011 in articles 2 and 3.
The statistical units are the deceased persons and the stillborns, respectively.
The deceased.
Estonia, whole country.
2024 last provided to Eurostat.
Accuracy is very high.
The unit is number.
Not applicable.
Medical death certificate is issued by physicians and forensic examiners (only MD-s). Since July 2019. it is an electronic document uploaded to E-Healt. Causes of Death Registry downloads data from E-Health every working day. Causes of death data are processed according to the WHO methodology. Additional information may be sought from certifier, usually by phone or e-mail.
All the future MD-s in Estonia are instructed to fill out medical death certificate in a mandatory course of pathological anatomy and legal medicine.
Annual, preliminary data monthly.
See Table 14.1 "Timeliness" in annex "COD_CODNSI_A_EE_2024_0000_an_1".
Estonia doesn’t have regions at NUTS level 2 and the geographical comparability is ensured.
ICD-10 updates have impact on data comparabilty.
