State Center for Health Statistics

Current Vital Event Data

The mission of the State Center for Health Statistics (SCHS) within the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, Office of Public Health is to collect and provide accurate, comprehensible information vital to informed decision making on matters concerning individual and community health. The SCHS supports health research projects in conjunction with educational, private, public, and community-based agencies.

Health status data are collected on Louisiana's vital event certificates of Live Birth, Spontaneous Fetal Death (stillbirth), Induced Termination of Pregnancy (induced abortion), Death, Marriage, and Divorce. Data collected on these certificates are used to describe trends and current status in infant and maternal health and in the causes of death most prevalent in race, gender, and age groups. This basic surveillance of vital events is essential in identifying individual and community health concerns and in targeting and evaluating health education and service efforts.


Archived Publications

The State Center for Health Statistics has archived publications of the Louisiana Health Report Card, the Vital Statistics Report, the Health-at-a-Glance Poster and the Louisiana Hospital Inpatient Discharge Database (LAHIDD) Report. All of these archived publications may be accessed through the following links,