A manual review of a sample of addresses on birth and death certificates revealed that the reported county of
residence did not always match the actual county in which the address was located. Therefore, a geocoding process was undertaken
in order to improve the accuracy of the geographic variables used for analyses of these data.
As of March 1, 2004, the county of residence used in the analyses of birth and death records has been determined
primarily by geographic coding of the address fields rather than by using the county of residence as reported on the birth or
death certificate. Overall, approximately 95 percent of all birth and death records for 1990-2002 have been successfully geocoded,
and the county of residence, zip code, and census tract variables were assigned by using the latitude and longitude of the
address. For those records that could not be geocoded, it was necessary to use the reported county of residence and the reported
zip code. The census tract variable will be ‘unknown’ for those records that could not be geocoded.
Due to the fact that it was necessary to use reported county for approximately 5 percent of the records and
because there are some issues related to geocoding addresses that fall on county lines, all data reported by county or other
geographic area should be considered to be estimates (but very good ones).
PLEASE NOTE: The total numbers by county have changed as a result of this process – more for some counties
than for others. To demonstrate the effect of this process on the birth data a spreadsheet
has been created that shows the total number of births, the reported number of births, and the percent of the total births that
were assigned by geocoding for each county and for all years 1990-2002.
Neighborhood-level birth data for Denver County are now available for birth statistics queries. The
Denver neighborhoods will be available for death
statistics queries in the near future.