demographic yearbook annuaire demographique 1951

B. 26 weeks (or 6 months, as indicated)
Africa:
Egypt (6 months)
America, South:
Colombia
(6 months)
Venezuela
(6 months)
C. 20 weeks (or 5 months, as indicated)
America, North:
Alaska [U.S.] (beginning 1947)
Panama (5 months)
Puerto Rico [U.S.] (beginning 1945)
United States (beginning 1942)
Virgin Islands [U.S.] (beginning 1945)
Oceania:
Hawaii [U.S.] (beginning 1946)
D. 3 months
Asia:
Japan
II. Areas specifying only that the foetus be viable or
recognizable as a human being:
Africa:
Southern Rhodesia [U.K.]
South-West Africa
Europe:
Portugal
III. Areas without criteria of viability:
Africa:
Union of South Africa
Angola [Port.]
Cape Verde Islands [Port.]
Sao Tome and Principe
[Port.]
Zanzibar and Pemba
[U.K.]
America, North:
El Salvador
Netherlands Antilles
Europe:
Austria (6 months)
Belgium
Czechoslovakia
Finland (6 months)
France (6 months)
Italy (6 months)
Luxembourg (6 months)
Netherlands (before 1950)
Switzerland (6 months)
Trieste (6 months)
Asia:
Portuguese India
Europe:
Channel Islands
[U.K.]
Greece
Hungary
Spain
Where the period of gestation is expressed in months, it is
sometimes intended that lunar months be understood, sometimes
calendar months. It was not possible to determine for
each case just which type of measure was used, but, in
general, countries indicating 7 months refer to lunar months
(28 weeks) and those indicating 6 months refer to calendar
months (usually equated to 180 days or to 26 weeks).
Because the comparability of stillbirth statistics is so
affected by procedural variations of the type already described
as well as by a number of others, the Expert Committee
on Health Statistics of the World Health Organization
has suggested that use of the term "stillbirth" be discontinued
and that the term "foetal death" be adopted
in reference to all products of human gestation that show
no evidence of life after separation from the mother. 12
The Committee has recommended that statistics be compiled
for all foetal deaths and that they be tabulated by
duration of gestation as follows:
Group I -less than 20 completed weeks;
Group II - 20-27 completed weeks;
Group III -
Group IV -
28 completed weeks and over;
gestation period not classifiable in groups
I, II and III.
Implementation of these proposals would greatly enhance
the comparability of statistics on this subject.
Table 10 presents stillbirth numbers for 102 areas and
table 11 presents crude stillbirth ratios for 90 areas. The
ratio is the number of stillbirths reported for the specified
year per 1,000 live births reported for the same year.
Ratios are not shown for areas where less than 50 stillbirths
were reported per year.
DEATH STATISTICS
Statistics of mortality are presented in tables 12 to 23.
These data, as in the case of births, do not represent a uniform
degree of accuracy or completeness of registration.
Because underregistration of deaths is more difficult to
detect or measure than underregistration of births, the
reliability code columns in the tables presenting total deaths,
infant deaths and corresponding crude rates (tables 13, 14,
18 and 19) contain more "unknowns" than do those in the
tables presenting birth statistics. It is generally believed that
deaths are more completely registered than births, but this
may not be the case everywhere. In fact, evidence is beginning
to accumulate which suggests that, in some areas and
under certain conditions, births may be more fully registered
than deaths.
The figures exclude stillbirths except in a few cases (so
noted in the tables) where the presumption seemed warranted
that the number of stillbirths included was too small
to invalidate the data. Deaths of infants who, though born
alive, died before registration of birth are not included in
the totals for certain countries. This exclusion is potentially
an important one, inasmuch as deaths up to three days
after birth, a period at which mortality tends to be high,
may thus escape registration.
The data presented relate to deaths which occurred within
the boundaries of the given country. Therefore, they may
be presumed to include, unless otherwise specified, deaths
among nomadic tribes and aborigines and those among
national or alien armed forces, displaced persons, war
refugees and aliens residing in the country at the time when
death occurred. They normally exclude deaths among armed
forces and civilian nationals stationed or residing outside the
country. It should be emphasized that the absence of qualifying
notes about inclusions or exclusions does not necessarily
mean that the data conform to the standard definition. However,
the information is given for virtually all cases where
the difference involved is other than negligible.
The tables have been carefully cross-checked and discrepancies
in numbers or rates are in most cases explained
in footnotes or otherwise accounted for. Differences which
could not be explained are also indicated in footnotes,
except where they are very small and involve only 1 or 2
deaths. Discrepancies in rates resulting from the use of
12 See the report on the second session of the Expert Committee
on Health Statistics, World Health Organization, Technical Report
Series No. 25, Geneva, 1950.
33