Test of the Death Data Quality of the 6th Population Census in China

This paper uses the newest census data, the 6th census of China in 2010, to check the data quality of the death. Analysis about the 4th and the 5th census of population in China shows that the death usually suffers obvious heap in some specific ages. Compared with the precious two censuses, this tendency in the 6th census decreases a lot, though still exists. Focusing on the infant mortality indicator, it is only about 3.8‰ computed by using data from the 6th census, which is almost impossible for present China. Based on the result and the infant mortality revealed by the National Ministry of Health in 2010, the 6th census omits about 140 thousands, even more than the registered number of death which is just 60 thousands. What’s more, with data of age-specific death rate of respective sex from the 6th census, the life expectancy at birth in 2010 of China can be computed using the life table method. However, the results are obviously too high, more than about 4 years old to the data from the United Nation, which means the death number suffers omission not only in the 0 years old but also in others. In addition, the omission has difference depending on when the death occurred.