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Glite Dictionary
vital statistics

vital statistics

2 4.3
Official numbers the government collects about births, deaths, marriages, and health
  • noun
  • /ˈvaɪtəl stəˈtɪstɪks/
  • Formal
translation icon : estadísticas vitales
  • Health agencies often rely on vital statistics to track trends in population health and mortality.
  • annual vital statistics
  • vital statistics records
  • vital statistics data

Examples

  • The government released vital statistics showing a decrease in the birth rate over the past year.

  • The MOI is responsible for registering deaths at the local administrative level; the MOPH is responsible for processing vital statistics data for the whole country and for disseminating the information on an annual basis through the publication of the Report of Public Health Statistics.

    Academic text (2012)

  • I check the record of vital statistics every day.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Death notices, vital statistics, and the weather forecast, one after the other.

    Blog text (20)

  • We used publicly available vital statistics for deaths in Thailand to analyze trends in infectious disease mortality rates during 1958-2009.

    Academic text (2012)

  • In 1988, for example, U.S. vital statistics registered almost 24,000 infants weighing less than one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds).

    Academic text (1991)

  • Vital statistics are essential for understanding demographic changes in society, including marriage and divorce rates.

Surface Forms

vital statistics singular
vital statistics plural
vital statistic singular

Morphology

vital + statistic

A learner who knows 'vital' (relating to life/important) and 'statistic' (numerical fact) can infer that the phrase refers to important or life-related numerical data, so some sense is recoverable. However the specific conventional meaning — official records of births, deaths, marriages and health — is more specialized and not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Vital statistics started as a way to talk about the 'numbers of life', the basic counts of births, deaths and marriages. The word vital means about life and statistics means numbers, so the phrase now means official data about births, deaths and health.