This data collection includes information about the cause of all recorded deaths occurring in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam during 1996. Data are provided concerning underlying causes of death, multiple conditions that caused the death, place of death, residence of the deceased (e.g., region, division, state, county), whether an autopsy was performed, and the month and day of the week of the death. In addition, data are supplied on the sex, race, age, marital status, education, usual occupation, and origin or descent of the deceased. Mortality Detail data for 1996 also can be extracted from this file. The Mortality Detail records are contained in the first 159 positions of these Multiple Cause records. The multiple cause of death fields were coded from the MANUAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL STATISTICAL CLASSIFICATION OF DISEASES, INJURIES, AND CAUSE-OF-DEATH, NINTH REVISION (ICD-9), VOLUMES 1 AND 2.

The data year is no longer located in positions 1-2 of the record, as it had been in previous years. A four-digit data year is now located in positions 115-118.The geographic codes reflect the results of the 1990 Census.Per agreement with NCHS, ICPSR distributes the data files and text of the technical documentation for this collection as prepared by NCHS.

Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: United States Data DS2: Combined Territories Data DS3: Puerto Rico Data DS4: Virgin Islands Data DS5: Guam Data

All recorded deaths occurring in the United States, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam during 1996.