Electronic Data Processing of National Vital Statistics

At the present time, national vital statistics are tabulated on electric accounting machines. During the past two years, the National Office of Vital Statistics has been engaged in a study of the feasibility of electronic data processing equipment. In terms of possible applications of electronic data processing systems within the National Office of Vital Statistics, the NOVS program falls into two broad areas: 1) The annual cycle of the collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination of vital statistics (births, deaths, fetal deaths, marriages, divorces, and notifiable diseases). 2) The conduct and processing of special statistical studies in the fields of health and demography. The experiences of other large statistical agencies have shown that EDPM can contribute greatly to the speed of data processing and to the efficient handling of complex tabulations and computations. It may well be the same in the case of national vital statistics processing. In any case, the examination of present procedures required in a feasibility study will contribute greatly to the over-all efficiency of the organization.