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Table
Indicator name:
Noncommunicable disease (NCD) mortality rate and suicide rates (per 100 000 population), age-standardized
Short name:
Age-standardized mortality rate (per 100 000 population)
Data type:
Rate
Indicator Id:
78
Topic:
Mortality and burden of disease
Rationale:
The numbers of deaths per 100 000 population are influenced by the age distribution of the population. Two populations with the same age-specific mortality rates for a particular cause of death will have different overall death rates if the age distributions of their populations are different. Age-standardized mortality rates adjust for differences in the age distribution of the population by applying the observed age-specific mortality rates for each population to a standard population.
Definition:
The age-standardized mortality rate is a weighted average of the age-specific mortality rates per 100 000 persons, where the weights are the proportions of persons in the corresponding age groups of the WHO standard population.
Disaggregation:
Cause, Age, Sex
Method of measurement
Data on deaths by cause, age and sex collected using national death registration systems or sample registration systems.
M&E Framework:
Impact
Method of estimation:
The estimates are derived from the WHO Global Health Estimates (GHE) 2021. Detailed methods are available in the links below, and summarized here.

All-cause mortality rates by age and sex for WHO Member States are derived from vital registration data, model lifetable systems, and estimates of child mortality from UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation.

Cause-of-death distributions are estimated from death registration data when available; assessed and adjusted for completeness and ill-defined categories. Selected specific causes are based on WHO and UN Interagency estimation processes, which made use of epidemiological studies, disease registers and notifications systems. Other causes of death for populations without useable death-registration data are estimated, drawing on updated IHME single-cause analyses from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 study, which made use of available death registration data as well as other sources of information on deaths, covariate regression modelling, and patterns of causes of death for similar countries.

These estimates represent the best estimates of WHO, computed using standard categories, definitions and methods to ensure cross-country comparability, and may not be the same as official national estimates. 

Due to changes in input data and methods, GHE2021 are not comparable to previously published WHO estimates.

Method of estimation of global and regional aggregates:
Aggregation of estimates of deaths by cause, age and sex by country, to estimate regional and global age-sex-cause specific mortality rates.
Other possible data sources:
Civil registration with complete coverage
Household surveys
Population census
Sample or sentinel registration systems
Special studies
Surveillance systems; All references to Kosovo should be understood to be in the context of the United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999)
Preferred data sources:
Civil registration with complete coverage and medical certification of cause of death
Unit of Measure:
Deaths per 100 000 population
Expected frequency of data dissemination:
Every 2-3 years
Expected frequency of data collection:
Continuous
IMRID:
78
Links:
WHO methods and data sources for country-level causes of death 2000-2021
WHO methods and data sources for life tables 2000-2021
Indicator Metadata Registry List
Age-standardized suicide rates (per 100 000 population)
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