Death Dashboard Technical Notes

On this page you will find definitions of terms from the Deaths Overview Dashboard and Leading Causes of Death Dashboard, summaries of the methodology used, and reporting requirements.

Reporting requirements

As specified in Wis. Stat. § 69.03(9), the following is a brief outline of the sequence of events that take place when a death occurs in Wisconsin:

• Within 24 hours after being notified of a death, the filing party (usually a funeral director) must create an electronic death record in the State Vital Records system and select the medical certifier (that is, the physician, coroner, or medical examiner who is responsible for completing and certifying the medical portion of the death record).
• Within six days after the pronouncement of the death, the medical certifier must complete the medical portion of the death record and electronically certify that portion of the record.
• Within two days after the medical certifier has certified the accuracy of the medical portion, the filing party must approve the death record. It will then be available in the State Vital Records system for the appropriate local vital records office (LVRO), comprised of 72 County Register of Deeds Offices and 2 City Health Offices. The LVRO will review the record. If the record is completed satisfactorily it is accepted for filing with the State Vital Records Office. There should be no more than nine calendar days total from date of death until the LVRO receives the electronic death record from the filing party.
• Within 10 business days of receiving the electronic death record from the filing party, the LVRO must accept the record for filing. After the LVRO accepts the electronic death record, the record is ready for registration by the State Vital Records Office.

Nature and source of the data

Data in the Wisconsin Death Overview and Leading Causes of Death dashboards are based on information from all Wisconsin resident deaths in the 2018–2024 calendar years reported to The State Vital Records Office. In 2013, the death certificate standard format was subject to several changes when the State Vital Records Office started collecting death information electronically.

Starting with 2022 data, a filter was applied based on the date the record was filed. All records that were filed before this date are included in the dashboards. If a record was filed after this date, then it was not included in the frozen data, and is therefore, not included in the dashboards.

Cause of death classification

Causes of death are coded according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases—Tenth Revision (ICD-10). This classification system is the current standard used by the NCHS. ICD-10 not only details disease classification, but also provides definitions, tabulation lists, the format of the death certificate, and the rules for coding cause of death. Data presented on cause-of-death statistics are based solely on the underlying cause of death, which is defined as “the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.” All the cause-of-death groupings used were recommended for state use by NCHS and WHIO.

The Office of Health Informatics (OHI) uses the guidelines described in annual issues of part 2a of the NCHS Instruction Manual. The table shows the list of ICD-10 codes used for ranking. The ranks are divided between decedents after the age of one. For ease of presentation and use of data, some of the codes used by the NCHS were combined.

Cause of Death and their ICD-10 classification table

Salmonella infections

A01, A02

Shigellosis and amebiasis

A03, A06

Tuberculosis

A16- A19

Whooping cough

A37

Scarlet fever and erysipelas

A38, A46

Meningococcal infection

A39

Septicemia

A40, A41

Syphilis

A50-A53

Acute poliomyelitis

A80

Arthropod-borne viral encephalitis

A83, A84, A852

Measles

B05

Viral hepatitis

B15-B19

HIV

B20- B24

Malaria

B50- B54

Malignant neoplasms

C

Benign neoplasms

D0-D4

Anemias

D5, D60- D64

Diabetes mellitus

E10- E14

Nutritional deficiencies

E4, E5, E60- E64

Meningitis

G00, G03

Parkinson’s disease

G20, G21

Alzheimer’s disease

G30

Diseases of heart

I01, I05-I09, I11, I13, I20- I28, I50- I52, I3, I4

Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease

I10, I12, I15

Cerebrovascular diseases

I6

Atherosclerosis

I70

Aortic aneurysm and dissection

I71

Influenza and pneumonia

J09- J18

Acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis

J20, J21

Chronic lower respiratory diseases

J40- J47

Pneumoconioses and chemical effects

J60-J66, J68

Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids

J69

Peptic ulcer

K25- K28

Diseases of appendix

K35- K38

Hernia

K40- K46

Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis

K70, K73, K74

Cholelithiasis and other disorders of gallbladder

K80- K82

Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis

N00-N07, N17-N19, N25- N27

Infections of kidney

N10, N12, N136, N151

Inflammatory diseases of female pelvic organs

N70- N76

Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium

O

Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period

P

Congenital malformations, deformations and abnormalities

Q

Accidents (unintentional injuries)

V, W, X0- X5, Y85, Y86

Intentional self-harm (suicide)

U03, X80- X84, X6, X7, Y870

Assault (homicide)

U01, U02, X85-X89, X9, Y0, Y871

Legal intervention

Y35, Y871

Operations of war and their sequelae

Y36, Y891

Complications of medical and surgical care

Y4-Y7, Y80- Y84, Y88

Enterocolitis C. difficile

A047

COVID-19

U071, U099

Population estimates

Following are the current sources for calculating population-based health statistics:

• 2018–2022 rates: U.S. Census Bureau (2023). Wisconsin annual county resident population by single year of age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity, Vintage 2022.
• 2023 rates: U.S. Census Bureau (2024). Wisconsin annual county resident population by single year of age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity, Vintage 2023.
• 2024 rates: U.S. Census Bureau (2025). Wisconsin annual county resident population by single year of age, sex, race, and Hispanic ethnicity, Vintage 2024.

These population estimates are accessible via the Wisconsin Interactive Statistics on Health (WISH) Query System.

Race and ethnicity

Beginning in 2013, race and ethnicity were reported separately. A total of 26 fields were created to classify race in addition to the fields used for identifying Hispanic groups. Starting with 2022 data products, the race and ethnicity variable was modified to more closely match population estimates provided by the U.S. Census. The following table shows the categorization based on race and ethnicity information reported on the death certificate.

Race and ethnicity classifications

Hispanic

Hispanic ethnicity of any race

Non-Hispanic American Indian

American Indian or Alaska Native only

Non-Hispanic Asian

Laotian, Hmong, Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, or other Asian only

Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander

Hawaiian, Guamanian, Samoan, or other Pacific Islander only

Non-Hispanic Black

Black only

Non-Hispanic Multi-race

Review note

Non-Hispanic White

White only

Non-Hispanic Other race

Other race only

Note on race and ethnicity methodology

• Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islanders were combined in the dashboards due to small numbers.
• A decedent was classified as Multi-race if there were more than two races identified on their death certificate. For example if Non-Hispanic, White and Black were selected then the descendent would be categorized as Non-Hispanic Multi-race. Similarly, if Non-Hispanic, Chinese and Hawaiian were selected the decedent would be Non-Hispanic Multi-Race. However, if Non-Hispanic, Chinese and Vietnamese were selected, the decedent would be categorized as Non-Hispanic Asian.
• In the U.S. Census population estimates there is no "Other race" to use as a denominator for rate calculations so these counts were excluded from dashboards.

Age groups

Included mortality statistics are for Wisconsin residents aged one or older. Detailed mortality information for infants under one year old can be found separately in the Infant Mortality dashboard.

Geography

Data was aggregated by residing county to generate mortality counts and rates for the 72 counties in Wisconsin. View the DHS regions by county displayed on the dashboard. Individual programs within DHS may define regions differently

Calculations

The following are the calculations used in the dashboards.

Crude mortality rate

Crude mortality rates are the simplest rate used to understand mortality in one geographic area. They can be calculated for an entire geographical area, for example the state of Wisconsin, or for subgroups within an area, such as 20–24 year-olds in the State of Wisconsin. The latter would be an example of an age-specific mortality rate.

Crude rates are expressed as the number of deaths reported each calendar year per 100,000 population.

Crude rate = (Number of deaths in a year / Total population at mid-year) x 100,000

Age-adjusted mortality rate

Age-adjusted rates are weighted averages of age-specific death rates, where the weights represent a fixed population by age. Consistent with standard methods, all rates calculated were age-adjusted using the 2000 U.S. census population as a reference. Age-adjustment allows for meaningful comparison between years or between groups that have different age distributions.

Age adjusted mortality rate = Σ(Age-specific mortality rate x Standard population weight)

Years of potential life lost

The years of potential life lost (YPLL) calculation estimates the number of life years lost to premature deaths. Similar to life expectancy, YPLL is a good measure of the overall health of an area. Wisconsin uses age 75 as the benchmark for YPLL calculations. A negative number indicates that average age at death exceeded 75 years, while a positive number indicates that the average age at death fell short of 75 years

Years of potential life lost = 75 - Average life expectancy for a population