Validity of Demographic Characteristics on the Death Certificate

In a sample of the United States population from the Census Bureau's current Population Surveys, we compared demographic characteristics with those recorded on the death certificate for the 43,000 decedents in the samples followed from 1979 to 1985. Overall percentage agreements were: Sex 99.5, Race 99.4, Place of birth 99.4, Hispanic origin 98.7, and Veteran status 95.2. Relatively fewer American Indians and Asian/Pacific Islanders had death certificates that agreed with the baseline race (73.6% and 82.4%, respectively). The direction of disagreement suggests that current estimates of mortality rates for American Indians and Asian/Pacific Islanders are underestimated.