1957 - United Nations Statistics Division

were retired at the time of death. In one country, their
former occupation may have been reported, while in
another, the current occupation "retired" would have
been given. For information on country practice in this
respect, see Handbook of Vital Statistics Methods, op. cit.,
p. 133 and Table 14.
A second important error derives from the fact that the
death reporting is done by a person who may not be
familiar with the occupation of the decedent and who
may, therefore, give an incorrect reply to the question.
This source or error, however, cannot be very much
greater than the errors in age reporting. Moreover, it is
anticipated that the errors may well be absorbed in the
broad-category classification employed in Table 18.
Another source of non-comparability arises in the
coding and classifying of the occupation as reported. An
acceptable international standard has only recently been
developed, and many countries have in the interim utilized
their own classification. In such cases, convertibility
of the detailed categories to the international standard
might be feasible, but achievement of comparability at
the abbreviated ten-category-classification level is not
possible. Even data which appear to be classified by the
same scheme should be viewed with skepticism until more
is known of the basic coding.
Finally, it should be noted that some of the distributions
have been made for the economically active population
only. Others are for persons who have ever been
economically active, i.e., the economically active plus
those retired. In such cases, an eleventh category of "no
occupation" has been added, in which the remainder of
the deaths is given. It should be noted that where "none"
is not a category and the frequencies in "not classifiable
elsewhere"' are large, the suspicion is probably justified
that decedents without an occupation have been placed
in the not-classifiable category. In Table 18, the percentage
of deaths 15 years of age and over in the "not classifiable"
category ranges from 0.6 for Japan to 60.9 for Costa
Rica. However, Japan shows 42.4% with "no occupation",
while Costa Rica shows none in this category. In
any case, a high proportion of deaths not classified by
occupation impairs the distribution, and care should be
used in interpreting these statistics for analytical purposes.
Table 19
For the first time in the Demographic Yearbook, mortality
rates specific for occupation, age, and sex are presented.
These are rates computed by the countries where
the data originated. They are shown in this issue of the
Yearbook as a stimulant to further work in the field.
To eliminate some of the problems of achieving correspondence
between the occupation reported on the census
schedule and that on the death report, the classification
has been made broad in each case. This lack of detail
also helps to eliminate the problem of duration of occupation,
i.e., how long the decedent actually operated in
the occupation category where he is classified. Mobility
between broad groups shown is probably not significant.
The age classification is that shown in Table 18 and
that for which population by occupation, age, and sex is
usually available.
For England and Wales, rates for both male and female
36
are included, the rates for females relating to "married
female" and the occupation being that of the husband.
For France, rates for males alone are shown for reasons
set forth in connexion with Table 18.
Coverage: Rates for only 2 countries are available, namely
France (limited age) and the United Kingdom. No attempt
was made to compute rates in the Statistical Office
because of the myriad problems of correspondence not
able to be solved without detailed knowledge of the basic
data and their definitions and the methodology involved.
For details of the method used and the adjustments made
to achieve correspondence between the deaths and the
population at risk in the two series shown, see the national
publications dealing with this subject. 46
Rate computation: Rates are the number of deaths in each
age-sex-occupation group per 100,000 population of the
same group. The numbers of deaths for France and the
United Kingdom are shown in Table 18; the populations
are not available, the rates not having been computed in
the Statistical Office.
Limitations: All of the limitations set forth in connexion
with Table 18 are operative here. In addition, there is
the major problem of achieving correspondence between
the population at risk and the deaths which occurred.
As noted above, broadening the occupation categories
helps to adjust for some of the possible discrepancies.
Also, limiting the distribution to males of selected ages
helps to eliminate some areas of special difficulties.
Another non-occupational factor, the influence of which
must be kept in mind, is marital status. Mortality varies
with marital status, and these variations may obscure
ocupational differentials. 47
3. Foetal-death statistics
Like other vital statistics, statistics of foetal deaths
(which are presented in Tables 20 and 21) relate to the
present-in-area population within the current boundaries
of the geographic units specified.,
The comparability of foetal-death and "stillbirth"
statistics is markedly affected by differences in definitions,
by variations in completeness of coverage, and by tabulation
procedures. A discussion of these problems will be
found in Chapter IV of the Handbook of Vital Statistics
Methods,48 but pertinent points will be set forth below.
According to the World Health Organization, a
Foetal death is death prior to the complete expulsion
or extraction from its mother of a product of
conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy;
the death is indicated by the fact that after such separation
the foetus does not breathe or show any other
evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation
of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of
voluntary muscles.