Mortality Statistics in Colombia, 1998-2019: an Analysis of Demographic Data Sources.

Liliana P. Calderón-Bernal , Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR)

Measuring the main components of the demographic dynamics is essential for an understanding of population changes and trends, both at the national and international levels. However, the accuracy of official estimates relies on the quality and the coverage of national data collection systems. Colombia, such as other middle-income countries, has a long-established vital statistics system and periodic population census. Nevertheless, there is still some uncertainty regarding the reliability of the official demographic data and, hence, of the resulting fertility and mortality estimates. Inspired by a project developed within the framework of the Human Mortality Database (HMD, www.mortality.org), our research analyses the quality of Colombian demographic data (i.e. vital statistics, population census and the recent annual population estimates) collected and produced by the Colombian National Statistics Office (namely, the DANE) over the first two decades of the 21st century. Following the approach described in the HMD Methods Protocol to compute lifetable series (Wilmoth et al. 2019) and adapting it to the specificities and limitations of Colombian data, we assess the quality of unadjusted mortality estimates produced with the HMD procedure. We examine the internal consistency, coverage and quality of the official sources and compare our HMD unadjusted estimates with those published by other institutions (i.e., DANE, GBD-IHME, LAMBdA, UN-WPP, WHO, ECLAC and LAMBdA). We conclude by proposing the kind of adjustments that would be justified based on the results of the data quality analysis.

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 Presented in Session P1. Postercafe