Estimation of Death Registration Coverage and Construction of Direct Life Tables for Iranian Provinces during 2011-2016

Construction of life table in real populations needs data on death distribution by age and sex. Incomplete coverage of the data produced by the National Organization for Civil Registration of Iran (NOCRI) does not provide sufficient information to calculate mortality rates and produce a national life table needless of reevaluation and correction. This paper aims to estimate the coverage level of the current death records and to construct the national and provincial Direct Life Tables for the Iranian population. The research method is secondary data analysis and a cross-sectional approach is adopted to analyze the data. The population and death data are taken from the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) and NOCRI, respectively. The statistical population includes all provinces of Iran in the 2016 census. The results show that the current death registration coverage for men and women is 86% and 75%, respectively, at the national level during 2011-2016. Accordingly, every male and female live birth born in Iran during that period of time is expected to live 72.8 and 74.6 years, respectively if the living standards remain stable. At the provincial level, the province of Sistan and Baluchistan has the lowest coverage level of death registration as well as the lowest life expectancy at birth.