National Cause of Death Register

Purpose of the Register

The purpose of the Register is to be able to describe causes of death and follow the development of mortality in Sweden. The data can be used to answer such questions as:

• How many people die from preventable causes in a given year?
• What is the trend in lung cancer deaths over time?
• Are there regional differences in the causes of death?

Contents of the Register

The National Cause of Death Register is updated every year. The register includes all deaths that occurred in Sweden. This also include deaths of persons not registered in Sweden. These deaths are included in the register a year after other deaths. Stillbirths are not included in the Register.

For the full list of all variables see the list of variables.

For information about the quality of the Register, such as missing data, variable content and history, see Production and quality of the Cause of Death Register

We do not disclose information on cause of death for any identifiable natural person

If you want to obtain information on a specific death, you must contact the medical institution that issued the cause-of-death certificate. We do not disclose information to relatives.

Legal regulation of the Register

The submission of data to the National Cause of Death Register is regulated by the Funeral Act (1990:1144) and associated regulation (1990:1147).

Statistics based on the Register

Extract statistics from the database. 

For ordering statistics from the Cause of Death Register, see  Ordering data and statistics (only available in Swedish).

Reporting to the Register

For every death in Sweden, a death certificate and a cause-of-death certificate must be completed by a doctor. The death certificate is submitted to the Tax Agency and, in some cases, to the police. The cause-of-death certificate is sent to the National Board of Health and Welfare.