Age-adjusted death rates: trend data based on the year 2000 standard population

Age-adjusted death rates are routine mortality risk measures used to compare rates over time or between groups such as those living in different geographic areas. This type of measure eliminates differences that would be caused because one population is older than another. Beginning with mortality data for 1999, the standard population used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to calculate age-adjusted death rates based on the Year 2000 estimated population distribution replacing that of 1940 used previously. Comparisons of 1999 mortality data with that of 1998 and earlier years cannot be made unless age-adjusted death rates are based on the same standard population. Changing the standard population generally changes the magnitude of an age-adjusted death rate and may change the magnitude of the differential between two groups. Typically, the change in standard makes relatively little difference in the mortality trend but it can when age-specific rates have divergent patterns. This publication provides age-adjusted death rates by race and sex based on the year 2000 population standard and directs readers to the NCHS Web site for age-adjusted death rates by selected causes.