First things and last : the story of birth and death certificates.

  • United States. National Office of Vital Statistics
Date:
[1960]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First things and last : the story of birth and death certificates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE STORY OF last BIRTH AND DEATH CERTIFICATES High up on the wall of the front lobby of the Department of Commerce building in Washington, D. C., there is a huge ‘‘population clock.’’ At regular intervals it ticks off the record of births and deaths throughout the whole country. Every 7% seconds, according to statistical average, a blue light flashes to report that a baby is born. Every 20 sec- onds a purple light reports that someone has died. And at intervals of 11 seconds a white light announces that one more person has been added to the net population of the United States. Birth—death! Birth—death! The inevitable first things and last that are the portion of every member of the human race. The population count for the country is based ona national census taken every 10 years with estimates for periodic changes. But birth and death statistics are com- piled directly from the individual records filed with local registrars for every county or other civil division in every State of the Nation. In 1958 the number of birth certificates totaled 4,203,812, and the number of death certificates, 1,647,886. It is from the information contained in these millions of individual pieces of paper that the vast body of birth and death statistics is produced.
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