Information Note - New and Updated Death Occurrence Tables Available on the CSO's Open Data Portal

New and Updated Death Occurrence Tables Available on the CSO's Open Data Portal

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today published new tables related to death occurrences in Ireland as well as updating some existing tables on our open data portal data.cso.ie (PxStat). These additions will provide more data on a range of categories such as age, sex, registration details, and underlying cause of death. 

All deaths attributable to external causes are referred to the Coroner's Court. As such, a lag can occur as to when these deaths are registered with the General Register Office (GRO), and in some cases they can be registered much later than the 22-month deadline to produce the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Reports. This impact can be particularly pronounced regarding deaths relating to external causes. Moreover, in certain circumstances a death can occur of natural causes and subsequently be registered late (no next of kin, insufficient knowledge of the deceased etc.)

The CSO introduced VSA35 in November 2023 to provide more up to date figures on deaths by sex, age, and detailed underlying cause of death. For instance, the 2021 Annual Report, published on 28 October 2023, a total of 34,844 deaths were had said to have occurred. Of these 34,844 deaths, 4.6% were related to external causes. Considering updated figures published as part of VSA35 (as part of today’s update) the overall number of deaths has increased by 1.1% (35,217) and external cause deaths have increased by 12.1% (1,584 to 1,801)

Given the CSO’s continued engagement with stakeholders to best meet user needs, a number of additional tables have been updated and new tables introduced. These include:

Updates to Existing Tables 

VSA35 (Revised Deaths Occurring): This provides a breakdown of yearly death occurrences, including late registrations. These are disaggregated by sex, age group, and detailed underlying cause of death (2007 – 2021). 

VSM01 (Revised Deaths Occurring): This provides a breakdown of monthly death occurrences, including late registrations. These are disaggregated by sex, and age group (January 2007 – December 2021). 

RIP01 (Weekly RIP Death Notices): This provides a breakdown of weekly death notification data by sex, extracted from RIP.ie (2020W01 – 2024W26). 

RIP02 (RIP Daily Death Notices): This provides a breakdown of daily death notification data by sex, extracted from RIP.ie (30 December 2019 – 30 June 2024).  

New Tables 

VSA111 (Revised Deaths Occurring): This provides a breakdown of yearly death occurrences, including registrations. These are disaggregated by sex, and age at death (2007 – 2021). 

VSA112 (Revised Deaths Occurring):  This provides a breakdown of yearly death occurrences, including late registrations. These are disaggregated by sex, selected underlying cause of death, and local authority (2015 – 2021). 

These tables will continue to be updated on an ongoing basis to provide users with the most up to date statistics relating to deaths. The CSO will continue to examine the feasibility of providing additional breakdowns of data for our users. Information regarding these tables going forward can be found as part of the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Report.