1957 - United Nations Statistics Division

Foreword
The 1957 Demographic Yearbook is the 9th in the series published by the Statistical Office of the
United Nations and the 2nd devoted primarily to mortality statistics in accordance with the "special
topic" rotation plan (see p. ii) .
Mortality statistics were first featured in the 1951 issue, where they covered roughly the period 1936­
1950; this second mortality volume carries forward the time coverage to 1956, thus providing historical
series for the past 20 years. It also introduces 5 tables not hitherto shown, namely deaths by cause and
medical certification; death rates by cause specific for age and sex; male deaths by occupation and age; male
death rates specific for occupation and age; and foetal deaths and ratios by period of gestation. The mortality
statistics section contains also series of deaths and rates specific for age and sex for the entire age span and for
infants separately, as well as historical series of deaths and crude death rates, infant deaths and mortality
rates, foetal deaths and ratios, life-table mortality rates, survivors, and life-expectancy values back to 1900.
The special text this year explores a number of the factors involved in the mortality declines observed over
the past decade.
Other statistics of importance not shown annually are 5 tables on migration furnished by the International
Labour Office, which are included for the first time since 1954, and the most recent estimates of
population for each capital and city of 100 000 or more inhabitants, included for the first time since 1952.
The usual censuses and estimates of population, as well as area and density for each geographic entity
of the world and continental and world aggregates, are included and to increase the utility of these data,
annual per cent rates of population growth between 1953 and 1956 are presented for the first time. Trends
of population, births, marriages, and divorces, together with population by age and sex, complete the customary
basic demographic statistics; the usual "Technical Notes" to the tables are given in Chapter II.
Acknowledgement is made to the Population Branch of the Bureau of Social Affairs of the United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, for the classification of population estimates by type
(Table 1), for the preparation of adjusted estimates for continents and regions (Table 2), and for the
application of the age-accuracy test mentioned in the "Technical Notes" (p. 18).
As a source of basic data for demographers, economists, and public-health workers, the Demographic
Yearbook should not be considered as an isolated volume adequate for all purposes. It should rather be considered
as one of a co-ordinated and interrelated set of periodic publications issued by the United Nations
and the specialized agencies.
In particular, the general interest of the United Nations in the broad range of demographic data and
that of the World Health Organization in statistics needed for the study of health problems form the basis
of the close co-operation of these agencies in the collection and publication of population, vital, and other
related types of statistical data. Under the co-ordinated plans, the United Nations Demographic Yearbook
is the central international source of demographic data for the demographer or the economist. Some of the
data assembled for the Demographic Yearbook are reprinted in the publications of the World Health Organization
so as to be in a form readily accessible to the medical and public-health professions. In addition,
publications of the World Health Organization, in particular its series Annual Epidemiological and Vital
Statistics, contain compilations of deaths by cause of death, age, and sex; special compilations of data for
selected causes of death; detailed data on cases and deaths for notifiable diseases; and other data of medical
interest.
Considered together, the publications of the United Nations and the World Health Organization cover
the major important types of statistics on population, vital events, and health, and both sets of publications
should be used when detailed figures on the full range of internationally assembled statistics on these subjects
are required.
VI