DOI: 10.3886/icpsr22960.v1
title: Natality Detail File, 2005 [United States]
title: Version 1

description: This collection provides information on live births in the United States during calendar year 2005. The natality data in these files are a component of the vital statistics collection effort maintained by the federal government. Birth data is limited to births occurring in the United States to United States residents and nonresidents. Births occurring to United States citizens outside of the United States are not included in this data collection. Part 1 contains data on births occurring within the United States, while Part 2 contains data on births occurring in the United States territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Beginning in 2005, the United States file no longer includes geographic detail (e.g., mother's state of residence). Geographic variables for the United States Territories file include the territory and county in which the birth occurred and in which the mother resided. Other variables describe the place of delivery, who was in attendance, and medical and health data such as the method of delivery, prenatal care, tobacco and alcohol use during pregnancy, pregnancy history, medical risk factors, and infant health characteristics. Birth and fertility rates and other statistics related to this study can be found in the National Vital Statistics Report in the codebook documentation. Demographic variables include the child's sex and month and year of birth, the parent's age, race, and ethnicity, as well as the mother's marital status, education level, and residency status.
description: One-hundred percent of birth certificates in calendar year 2005.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: United States File
DS2: United States Territories File
description: Live births in the United States during calendar year 2005.
description: (1) The full product suite was not released for this study due to the large size of system and transport files. (2) Data for Vermont are based on an incomplete file of records. The total number of Vermont resident births is under-reported by about 3 percent. Information based on the complete file of Vermont resident births is available via the National Center for Health Statistics Web Site. (3) To protect respondent confidentiality, codes in variables MRACE1E through MRACE8E and FRACE1E through FRACE8E were blanked. (4) Beginning in 2005, the United States file no longer includes geographic detail. Tabulations of birth data by residence of mother for states and for counties with populations of 100,000 or more are available using the VitalStats online data access tool available via the National Center for Health Statistics Vital Stats Web site. Certain geographic-level data may also be available upon request from the National Center for Health Statistics. More information can be found via the Release and Access Policy for Microdata and Compressed Vital Statistics Files, 2007. (5) According to documentation from the principal investigator, United States residents who gave birth in Guam were considered residents of Guam and were assigned a code 1 in the RESTATUS variable. (6) The CASEID variable was created for use with online analysis. (7) Variables SEX, OTERR, and RCNTY_POP were converted from character to numeric. (8) System-missing values in character variables were recoded to 9. (9) Value labels for unknown codes were added in variables APNCU, U_APNCU, MBRACE, FBRACE, and OCNTY. (10) More information on natality studies may be found via the National Center for Health Statistics Web site.