BC Vital Events and Statistics Births data set

Description

Includes all births registered in the province of BC.

Variables available

Both Core and Non-Core fields are available for this data set.

Core vs. Non-Core Data

• Core Data: Some BC Ministry of Health data sets available through PopData and HDPBC are called ‘Core Data’. A Core Data set is a standardized ‘bundle’ of commonly requested variables. A Core Data set may not include ALL the variables available in the data set. For example, some Core Data variables, such as geography or organisational codes, are suppressed to meet privacy legislation requirements.
• Non-Core Data: Non-Core Data are variables that are NOT included in the standardized Core Data set. Non-Core Data is available for request as an addition to the Core Data set.

For the majority of DARs, requesting access to Core Data ONLY may make the data access approval process quicker and may expedite data provision. Data requests that include Non-Core Data will be subject to regular rather than expedited processes, both for application review and data provisioning.

Please note that the overall data access request is subject to meeting ALL of the Five SAFEs requirements. For more detail on the Five SAFEs, visit the Eligibility and the Five SAFES model page of our website.

> download BC Vital Events and Statistics Births all available variables (pdf)

Data update schedule

For BC, our Vital Events and Statistics data sets usually have a 3-month lag.

Approximate data update schedule	Complete data up to:
January	September 30th
April	December 31st
July	March 31st
October	June 30th

Please note: Our data update schedule depends on when these data are made available to us by the data provider, so the update schedule is an estimation only. 

Inclusions

• Includes home births, which do not appear in the Discharge Abstract Database (Hospital Separations) file.

Exclusions

• Excludes all births to BC residents which occur out-of-province.

Quality/accuracy of information/field coding source

• There are federal standards for vital statistics certificates and reports that have been adopted by the provinces. The use of nationally uniform vital registration and statistics standards allows for comparison of both national and provincial data. The physician or registered midwife who was in attendance at a birth must complete a Notice of Live Birth or Stillbirth/ (NOB) form, supplying the labour and the delivery details.

Important additional information

• In the case of adopted children, the parents on the births file may be the adoptive parents.
• The name of the father on the births file may not be the name of the biological father.