Registration of Births and Induced Abortions in the Nordic Countries

All the five Nordic countries have a long tradition in health statistics and health monitoring. The cornerstone of the national health information systems is register information. There are, for example, complete population-based registration of births and deaths, cancers, hospital care, and medication (Cappelen and Lysol 2004, Gissler and Haukka. 2004, Mortensen 2004, Otterblad Olausson et al. 2004). The main prerequisites for a functioning register system are its completeness and high quality. These are facilitated by the Nordic legislation allowing mandatory reporting from public and private sector without informed consent and the existence of unique person identity number system.