Welcome to PhilaStats, the Vital Statistics Dashboard for Philadelphia, PA.

PhilaStats is the new home of Philadelphia’s vital statistics data, prepared by the vital statistics team in the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. This dashboard highlights statistics and trends in natality (births), mortality (deaths), and population for Philadelphia residents between 2011 and 2021.

Vital Statistics in Context
Population health is deeply influenced by the conditions in which people are born, live, work, learn, play, worship, and age, often referred to as social determinants of health. Exposure to structural racism shapes these conditions and creates patterns of disadvantage. It also contributes to poor health and lack of resources in Black communities and other communities of color. PhilaStats includes data on health outcomes by race/ethnicity and on social determinants of health so that users can learn about and visualize disparities and geospatial patterns of disadvantage in Philadelphia. Follow these links to learn more about the health impacts of redlining, racism in healthcare, racism as a public health crisis, and the different levels of racism.

For More Details
Updated data through 2021 were last posted to OpenDataPhilly in March 2023, and the dashboard will be updated as new data become available. Technical notes describing the data and analysis are here. The data behind these visualizations are freely available via OpenDataPhilly or using the “Click to Access Data” button in the menu on the left. A complete list of variables available on OpenDataPhilly is included in the technical notes.

Getting Started

Use the menu on the left to toggle between pages.

The ”Click to Access Data” button at the bottom of the menu navigates to OpenDataPhilly where data tables can be downloaded.

Important notes about missing data, source, and definitions can be found on each page.

Want to compare different aspects of the same metric? Use the optional “Expand to compare…” panel B on the Population, Mortality, and Natality pages.

Authors

Created by Annaka Scheeres, Giselle Babiarz, Mattie Bodden & Megan Todd from the Data Lab in the Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, with thanks to our colleagues Quintin Mirick and Cass Wilkinson-Saldaña.

Suggested Citation

Philadelphia Department of Public Health (2023). PhilaStats. Retrieved from https://philadelphiapublichealth.shinyapps.io/philastats/.

Share Your Feedback

Please complete this short survey to help us improve PhilaStats. Questions and comments can be directed to the vital statistics team at epi@phila.gov.

These data were supplied by the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Health specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations, or conclusions.

1. How should I view PhilaStats?

This dashboard is best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer at 100% zoom.

2. What kinds of questions can I answer with PhilaStats?

PhilaStats can help you answer many questions about population, natality (births), and mortality (deaths), including:

• How do trends in diabetes mortality differ by sex and race/ethnicity?
• What causes of death are most common among young adults?
• How do birth rates vary by age group?
• Are infant mortality rates higher in areas of the city with higher rates of poverty?

3. Why do some values show as “suppressed” or “unreliable”?

Counts less than ten and rates based on counts less than ten are not shown to protect privacy. Rates based on counts between ten and twenty are shown, but a quality concern flag indicates that rates based on these small counts may be statistically unstable.

4. Why are some estimates marked “preliminary” and others marked “final”?

Most vital events (births and deaths) are recorded in the PA Vital Registration System relatively quickly, so PDPH learns about them with only a minimal delay. In some cases, vital events and cause(s) of death can take weeks or even months to be recorded, such as if a Philadelphia resident dies in another jurisdiction, or if an investigation is required to determine the cause of death. The PA Vital Registration System releases final data after the records have been checked for accuracy and completeness, which typically occurs about 18 months after the close of a calendar year. PhilaStats includes preliminary data that have not yet gone through this validation process. The differences between preliminary and final data are generally small, but these differences may alter estimates, especially for rare events. Use caution when relying on a preliminary estimate.

5. What data sources are used for PhilaStats?

PhilaStats relies on data from the PA vital registration system, the Census Bureau, and the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

6. How is race/ethnicity recorded?

Different data sources record race and Hispanic ethnicity in different ways. On birth certificates, the birthing person self-reports their race/ethnicity. On death certificates, next of kin report the decedent’s race/ethnicity. For census population estimates, the respondent either self-reports their race/ethnicity or reports the entire household’s race/ethnicity. Because race and Hispanic ethnicity are captured differently across these data sources, it is possible that different races/ethnicities could be reported for a single person.

7. Who is included in the “multiracial (NH)” category of race/ethnicity?

Historically, many data sources categorized people into single, mutually exclusive race/ethnicity categories, meaning someone who self-identified as both Black and Asian could only be recorded as Black or Asian, not as both. According to recent population data, identifying with multiple racial groups is becoming more common, and the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has proposed new standards for race and ethnicity reporting that allow individuals to record all of their racial/ethnic identities. Thus, “multiracial (NH)” represents individuals who reported more than one racial identity but did not report Hispanic ethnicity; following current federal statistical guidelines, a person is recorded as Hispanic no matter which additional race or races are reported. In Philadelphia, the non-Hispanic multiracial population is relatively small—about 2% of residents identify this way. Due to the small population size, estimates are less reliable (and thus, more likely to be suppressed) than estimates based on larger population groups, and certain metrics (i.e., rates and life expectancy estimates) are not presented for this group. Use caution when interpreting results for this group.

8. What is life expectancy at birth?

Life expectancy at birth is the number of years a person born in a given year could expect to live on average, assuming current mortality trends remain constant throughout their lifetime. For more details, and to learn why this assumption is false, see our guest post at Sixty-Six Wards.

9. Why is life expectancy so high for certain race/ethnicity groups?

Race/ethnicity for a single person may be reported differently based on the data source (see FAQ 6). Research has shown that these different methods of recording race/ethnicity may lead to bias in mortality rates; in particular, mortality rates for Asian and Hispanic Americans may be underestimated, which would mean an overestimate of life expectancy. We cannot say for certain that our estimates of life expectancy for these groups is higher than it should be, but data users should be aware that this may be the case.

10. Why do maps show Planning Districts rather than ZIP codes or Census tracts?

At smaller geographic units, counts of uncommon events are small and frequently fall under the suppression criterion of counts less than ten. Planning Districts are large enough that most metrics are not suppressed, allowing for some sub-city disaggregation.

11. When will this dashboard be updated?

This dashboard is updated with an additional year of data when the PA vital registration system issues its final statistics for that year. This typically happens about 18 months after the end of the calendar year.

12. How should I cite PhilaStats?

Philadelphia Department of Public Health (2023). PhilaStats. Retrieved from https://philadelphiapublichealth.shinyapps.io/philastats/.

13. How are the categories (different colors) on the map chosen?

On the maps tab, the five categories divide the number of geographic units in five equally sized groups (quintiles) and may change based on the data displayed in the map. On the population tab, the population composition maps have five fixed categories so that the four maps show relative concentration of population by race/ethnicity.

14. Why doesn’t the y-axis always start at zero?

Line graphs are optimized to compare groups and highlight change over time; thus, axes don’t necessarily start at zero, and the range represented on the y-axis may vary. The y-axes for bar charts always begin at zero.

15. Why are male and female the only options for sex?

At this time, birth and death certificates in PA only allow two options: male or female. We recognize that this may lead to inaccurate reporting of certain gender identities.

16. There is a number reported on PhilaStats that is different from another report that says it is measuring the same thing. Why?

Estimates may differ for a variety of reasons. PhilaStats analyses generally examine events that happen to Philadelphia residents, regardless of where they happened, while others may examine events that happen in Philadelphia, regardless of where someone lives. Population estimates also vary by data source (e.g., the American Community Survey, the decennial Census); thus, rates and proportions may differ based on the data source used. Estimates by race/ethnicity may differ based on the source of the race/ethnicity data (see FAQs 6 & 9).