- Methods and Projects
- Standards and Classifications
Standardised Methodological Report
Estimate of number of weekly deaths (EoWD)
- 1Contact
- 1.1Contact organisation
National Statistics Institute of Spain
- 1.5Contact mail address
Avenida de Manoteras 50-52 - 28050 Madrid
- 1.1Contact organisation
- 2Metadata update
- 2.1Metadata last certified
19/11/2024
- 2.2Metadata last posted
21/02/2024
- 2.3Metadata last update
19/11/2024
- 2.1Metadata last certified
- 3Statistical presentation
- 3.1Data description
The Weekly Death Estimate Statistics offers quick estimates of the number of deaths that occur each week and each month from the entries registered in the computerized Civil Registries.
These statistics offer disaggregated information according to autonomous community, province and island.
- 3.2Classification system
- Comunidades y Ciudades Autónomas
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias, Principado de
04 Balears, Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid, Comunidad de
14 Murcia, Región de
15 Navarra, Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja, La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla - Islas
07 Balears, Illes
07071 Formentera
07072 Eivissa
07073 Mallorca
07074 Menorca
35 Palmas, Las
35351 Fuerteventura
35352 Gran Canaria
35353 Lanzarote
38 Santa Cruz de Tenerife
38381 Gomera, La
38382 Hierro, El
38383 Palma, La
38384 Tenerife - Provincias
02 Albacete
03 Alicante/Alacant
04 Almería
01 Araba/Álava
33 Asturias
05 Ávila
06 Badajoz
07 Balears, Illes
08 Barcelona
48 Bizkaia
09 Burgos
10 Cáceres
11 Cádiz
39 Cantabria
12 Castellón/Castelló
13 Ciudad Real
14 Córdoba
15 Coruña, A
16 Cuenca
20 Gipuzkoa
17 Girona
18 Granada
19 Guadalajara
21 Huelva
22 Huesca
23 Jaén
24 León
25 Lleida
27 Lugo
28 Madrid
29 Málaga
30 Murcia
31 Navarra
32 Ourense
34 Palencia
35 Palmas, Las
36 Pontevedra
26 Rioja, La
37 Salamanca
38 Santa Cruz de Tenerife
40 Segovia
41 Sevilla
42 Soria
43 Tarragona
44 Teruel
45 Toledo
46 Valencia/València
47 Valladolid
49 Zamora
50 Zaragoza
51 Ceuta
52 Melilla - Sexo
1 Hombres
2 Mujeres
- Comunidades y Ciudades Autónomas
- 3.3Sector coverage
Collects the deaths that occur in Spain, regardless of whether they are part of the resident or non-resident population
- 3.4Statistical concepts and definitions
- Age
Age in years refers to the number of birthdays reached by the reference date, in other words, the age last birthday.
- Sex
Sex refers to the biological sex of the person. According to the WHO, "sex" refers to biological and physiological features defining to men and women, whereas "gender" refers to the roles, behaviour, activities and attributes constructed socially that a specific culture regards as appropriate for men and women. In accordance with this description, the WHO regards "man" and "woman" as sex categories, whereas "male" and "female" are gender categories.
- Age
- 3.5Statistical unit
The basic statistical unit is the deceased person.
- 3.6Statistical population
The population under study are the deaths that occurred in Spain.
- 3.7Reference area
The statistics cover the entire national territory. Disaggregated data is published at the Autonomous Community, province and island level.
- 3.8Time coverage
Statistics disseminate data from week 1 of the year 2000 (weekly data) and January 2009 (monthly data).
- 3.9Base period
Week 1 of the year 2000 and January 2009
- 3.1Data description
- 4Unit of measure
- 4.1Unit of measure
The data is published:
- In absolute numbers (number of deaths).
- Accumulated so far this year.
- Absolute difference of the accumulated so far this year.
- 4.1Unit of measure
- 5Reference period
- 5.1Reference period
Data referring to the period: Monthly A: 2024 Week: 01
- 5.1Reference period
- 6Institutional mandate
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
The compilation and dissemination of the data are governed by the Statistical Law No. 12/1989 "Public Statistical Function" of May 9, 1989, and Law No. 4/1990 of June 29 on “National Budget of State for the year 1990" amended by Law No. 13/1996 "Fiscal, administrative and social measures" of December 30, 1996, makes compulsory all statistics included in the National Statistics Plan. The National Statistical Plan 2009-2012 was approved by the Royal Decree 1663/2008. It contains the statistics that must be developed in the four year period by the State General Administration's services or any other entity dependent on it. All statistics included in the National Statistics Plan are statistics for state purposes and are obligatory. The National Statistics Plan 2021-2024, approved by Royal Decree 1110/2020, of 15 December, is the Plan currently implemented. This statistical operation has governmental purposes, and it is included in the National Statistics Plan 2021-2024. (Statistics of the State Administration).
- 6.2Data sharing
The exchanges of information needed to elaborate statistics between the INE and the rest of the State statistical offices (Ministerial Departments, independent bodies and administrative bodies depending on the State General Administration), or between these offices and the Autonomic statistical offices, are regulated in the LFEP (Law of the Public Statistic Function). This law also regulates the mechanisms of statistical coordination, and concludes cooperation agreements between the different offices when necessary.
There are no planned exchanges of information with other organizations that produce statistics.
- 6.1Legal acts and other agreements
- 7Confidentiality
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
The Statistical Law No. 12/1989 specifies that the INE cannot publish, or make otherwise available, individual data or statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or entity. Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society
- 7.2Confidentiality - data treatment
INE provides information on the protection of confidentiality at all stages of the statistical process: INE questionnaires for the operations in the national statistical plan include a legal clause protecting data under statistical confidentiality. Notices prior to data collection announcing a statistical operation notify respondents that data are subject to statistical confidentiality at all stages. For data processing, INE employees have available the INE data protection handbook, which specifies the steps that should be taken at each stage of processing to ensure reporting units' individual data are protected. The microdata files provided to users are anonymised.
- 7.1Confidentiality - policy
- 8Release policy
- 8.1Release calendar
The advance release calendar that shows the precise release dates for the coming year is disseminated in the last quarter of each year.
- 8.2Release calendar access
The calendar is disseminated on the INEs Internet website (Publications Calendar)
- 8.3User access
The data are released simultaneously according to the advance release calendar to all interested parties by issuing the press release. At the same time, the data are posted on the INE's Internet website (www.ine.es/en) almost immediately after the press release is issued. Also some predefined tailor-made requests are sent to registered users. Some users could receive partial information under embargo as it is publicly described in the European Statistics Code of Practice
- 8.1Release calendar
- 9Frequency of dissemination
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
The dissemination frequency is monthly.
- 9.1Frequency of dissemination
- 10Accessibility and clarity
- 10.1News release
The results of the statistical operations are normally disseminated by using press releases that can be accessed via both the corresponding menu and the Press Releases Section in the web
- 10.2Publications
The results of these statistics are disseminated through the INE website and some results are collected in publications such as INE Figures, etc.
- 10.3On-line database
INEbase is the system the INE uses to store statistical information on the Internet. It contains all the information the INE produces in electronic formats. The primary organisation of the information follows the theme-based classification of the Inventory of Statistical Operations of the State General Administration . The basic unit of INEbase is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities that lead to obtaining statistical results on a determined sector or subject based on the individually collected data. Also included in the scope of this definition are synthesis preparation.
No. of queries to data tables AC1=1,122,521
No. of queries to metadata AC2=317 - 10.4Micro-data access
A lot of statistical operations disseminate public domain anonymized files, available free of charge for downloading in the INE website Microdata Section
- 10.5Other
It is possible to request tailored information from the INE Information Area. These requests are processed taking into account limitations on confidentiality or accuracy.
- 10.6Documentation on methodology
The methodology document can be accessed at the following link:
https://www.ine.es/en/metodologia/t20/meto_emn_en.pdf
AC3=100
- 10.7Quality documentation
Sections 10.6 to 17 of this document are considered the user-oriented quality report for this operation.
- 10.1News release
- 11Quality management
- 11.1Quality assurance
Quality assurance framework for the INE statistics is based on the ESSCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice made by EUROSTAT. The ESSCoP is made up of 16 principles, gathered in three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with some indicators which make possible to measure it. In order to evaluate quality, EUROSTAT provides different tools: the indicators mentioned above, Self-assessment based on the DESAP model, peer review, user satisfaction surveys and other proceedings for evaluation.
In order to manage the quality of these statistics based on an administrative record, exhaustive controls are carried out in all phases of the process. Special emphasis is placed on checking that the values of the variables are valid, elimination of duplicates and that there are no inconsistencies in the information received.
- 11.2Quality assessment
The information is of high quality since it comes from the data recorded by the Civil Registries through the INFOREG and DICIREG applications of the Ministry of Justice. These applications have been implemented over the last few years in the national territory, reaching a very high degree of implementation and stability. By early 2024, only about 6% of deaths are not recorded and have to be estimated, a figure that will reach 0% with the full implementation of DICIREG in September 2025.
As a strong point of the statistics, it is worth highlighting the great speed in providing reliable information on the number of deaths. Thanks to INFOREG (and its successor DICIREG) today it is possible to know with sufficient precision the number of deaths that occurred a week ago, in those municipalities that have computerized civil registries.
- 11.1Quality assurance
- 12Relevance
- 12.1User needs
Users of this statistic include:
- Researchers and Universities.
- territorial administrations
- enterprises
- individuals
Each of these users has different needs depending on the purpose and usefulness of the information they require. In particular, researchers and universities need detailed data on deaths, disaggregated by variables (sex, age) to conduct mortality studies, identify patterns and risk factors, and develop research on public health and health policies; local governments require weekly estimates of deaths by region and reports on mortality broken down by population group to make decisions on the allocation of public health resources and to evaluate and adjust local health and welfare policies; companies need estimates of overall and risk group mortality so that they can plan occupational health risk management and establish corporate social responsibility policies based on population health; and, finally, individuals require overall mortality data for their community or province to learn about mortality trends and plan personal health decisions.
As unmet needs, we can point out that the coverage of death registries is not uniform at the national level as the implementation of computerized civil registries is not homogeneous in the different provinces of the country; the lack of greater disaggregation makes it difficult to identify underlying patterns in mortality and the delay in receiving data from the civil registries affects the immediacy with which the results can be provided. Some of these needs are being progressively addressed through the rapid implementation of the DICIREG computerized registry throughout the national territory, which is expected to be completed by September 2025. In addition, work will be done to provide users with a greater number of variables and a greater level of disaggregation.
- 12.2User satisfaction
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date.(Click next link)
The INE has carried out general user satisfaction surveys in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 and it plans to continue doing so every three years. The purpose of these surveys is to find out what users think about the quality of the information of the INE statistics and the extent to which their needs of information are covered. In addition, additional surveys are carried out in order to acknowledge better other fields such as dissemination of the information, quality of some publications...
On the INE website, in its section Methods and Projects / Quality and Code of Practice / INE quality management / User surveys are available surveys conducted to date:
https://ine.es/ss/Satellite?c=Page&pagename=MetodologiaYEstandares%2FINELayout&cid=1259944133654&L=1
In the user satisfaction surveys carried out to date, the Demography and Population sector that includes this statistical operation is assessed, which could provide indications regarding users' opinion on the operation.
- 12.3Completeness
The information that is collected allows us to attend to all the requests that are received.
The data completeness rate is 100%
R1=100%
- 12.1User needs
- 13Accuracy and reliability
- 13.1Overall accuracy
The quality of the recording of the data in the Civil Registries, the error correction, data validation, imputation of the lack of information or adjustments for the delay in the reception of the information allows obtaining a high degree of reliability of the statistics.
- 13.2Sampling error
As it is a statistic based on an administrative record, it does not have sampling errors.
- 13.3Non-sampling error
Deaths registered in the Civil Registries and recorded in the INFOREG or DICIREG applications of the Ministry of Justice represent approximately 96% of deaths in Spain. This, together with the correction in very specific cases of some delay in the registration of the death, is corrected thanks to the implementation of two expansion coefficients.
A4=4.3%
- 13.1Overall accuracy
- 14Timeliness and punctuality
- 14.1Timeliness
The data is published monthly on a working day of week s of month m and the series of weekly deaths is updated up to week s-3 (calendar week, from Monday to Sunday) and month m-2.
As provisional and definitive data on death statistics (Natural Population Movement) based on CMD/BED documents become available, the estimates will be replaced by these provisional or definitive data. Thus, the data for week s of the year 2023 will be considered final in November 2024.
TP1: 16 days
TP2: 11 months
Future efforts to reduce this time lag in the future are focused on the progressive computerization of civil registries, optimization of internal processes and collaboration with other agencies.
- 14.2Punctuality
The dissemination of the data is carried out in accordance with the calendar of availability of the statistics that the INE prepares and publishes for each year.
TP3=0 (there are no delays in the publication)
- 14.1Timeliness
- 15Coherence and Comparability
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
Under-registration coefficients are calculated and applied according to the province of registration. Until May 2024, the estimated data were published according to province of registration. However, as of this date, the estimated data are published according to province of residence in order to improve the comparability of the provisional data with the final data from previous years.
On occasions, the residence of the deceased is not always well informed in INFOREG/DICIREG, and therefore in these cases, the province of residence of the deceased has been imputed according to the place where the registration was made.
- 15.2Comparability - over time
The statistics are comparable throughout the period. There has been no methodological break
CC2 = 1240 weeks
- 15.3Coherence - cross domain
This statistic is consistent with the Death Statistics.
- 15.4Coherence - internal
The consistency between variables is contrasted in all phases of the statistical process.
- 15.1Comparability - geographical
- 16Cost and burden
- 16.1Cost and burden
Being a statistic based on an administrative record, they do not have an additional burden on the informants.
The estimate of the budget credit necessary to finance the Estimate of weekly deaths provided for in the 2024 Annual Program is 38.53 thousand euros.
To increase production efficiency, the complete computerization of civil registries, the improvement of interoperability between the different databases and the improvement of predictive statistical models will be of great help.
- 16.1Cost and burden
- 17Data revision
- 17.1Data revision - policy
The INE of Spain has a policy which regulates the basic aspects of statistical data revision, seeking to ensure process transparency and product quality. This policy is laid out in the document approved by the INE board of directors on 13 March of 2015, which is available on the INE website, in the section "Methods and projects/Quality and Code of Practice/INE’s Quality management/INE’s Revision policy" (link).
This general policy sets the criteria that the different type of revisions should follow: routine revision- it is the case of statistics whose production process includes regular revisions-; more extensive revision- when methodological or basic reference source changes take place-; and exceptional revision- for instance, when an error appears in a published statistic-.
- 17.2Data revision - practice
Two types of data coexist in the project:
- Definitive data: deaths to the last data published in 2023.
- Estimated data: deaths from 2024 to the present.
Estimated data are reviewed and updated in each monthly publication.
A6-RMAR=0.16%
Calculated based on the total of the last 12 months
- 17.1Data revision - policy
- 18Statistical processing
- 18.1Source data
The original source of the data is the registration of deaths in the civil registries. Several years ago, the Ministry of Justice launched the Inforeg application to record various registry entries, including deaths. This application has been implemented in the Civil Registries although not all use it (around 6% of deaths registered in Spain are not recorded in Inforeg).
From October 2021, Inforeg begins to be gradually replaced by a new application, DICIREG, which should ideally be implemented throughout Spain within approximately three years.
- 18.2Frequency of data collection
The collection of information is daily. Every day the INE receives the files with the deaths recorded in the Civil Registries up to the previous day.
- 18.3Data collection
To carry out these statistics, the information is obtained from:
- The definitive files of the Death Statistics (from the year 2000 to the year 2023).
- The daily files received by the INE from the Ministry of Justice.
- 18.4Data validation
Multiple analyzes of the coherence of the evolution of the data are carried out
- 18.5Data compilation
Firstly, the INE verifies the reception, reading and processing of the files received from the Ministry of Justice. Subsequently, the purification and validation of the data is carried out. The expansion coefficients are then applied. The deaths recorded in Inforeg for each week in each geographical area (AC, provinces, islands) are calculated by applying two expansion coefficients. The first coefficient is a correction for undercoverage of the original Inforeg data. It is an expansion factor that historically relates deaths recorded and finally occurring in each geographical area. The second factor corrects for the delay in writing data to Inforeg. This coefficient is used in very isolated cases, for the most recent two weeks published. They are updated and corrected with each new publication of results.
The last stage before the dissemination of the information is aimed at analyzing the aggregated information and verifying the consistency of the information offered.
Quality Indicator 'Imputation rate' A7=0%.
- 18.6Adjustment
No seasonal adjustment is applied.
- 18.1Source data
- 19Comment
- 19.1Comment
- 19.1Comment