Vital Statistics Death Certificates (Mortality) Geocodes

The following table lists the geographic variables in the natality data. To access these variables, please read the NVSS Data Release and Access Policy .

* Counties and cities with a population of 100,000 or more

** All counties regardless of population size and cities with a population of 10,000 or more

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• Two parallel sets of geographic codes are currently available in vital statistics files: Federal Information Process Standard (FIPS) codes and proprietary NCHS codes. FIPS codes have been presented here because they are more familiar to most users.
• FIPS State, County, and SMSA codes have been available since 1980 and FIPS Place (City) codes have been available since 2003. NCHS codes are available for all years prior to 2003, but should be used with caution when using multiple years’ data as NCHS codes are subject to change.
• The FIPS MSA codes used from 1990-2005 are based on 1990 definitions and the FIPS MSA codes used from 1988-1989 are based on 1980 definitions. This is important to consider especially if you are combining this data with other data based on the geographic identifier.