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Berkeley Unified Numident Mortality Database: Public Administrative Records for Individual-Level Mortality Research

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  • Breen, Casey
  • Goldstein, Joshua R.

Abstract

While much progress has been made in understanding the demographic determinants of mortality in the United States using individual survey data and aggregate tabulations, the lack of population-level register data is a barrier to further advances in mortality research. With the release of Social Security application (SS-5), claim, and death records, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has created a new administrative data resource for researchers studying mortality. We introduce the Berkeley Unified Numident Mortality Database (BUNMD), a cleaned and harmonized version of these records. This publicly available dataset provides researchers access to over 49 million individual-level mortality records with demographic covariates and fine geographic detail, allowing for high-resolution mortality research.

Suggested Citation

  • Breen, Casey & Goldstein, Joshua R., 2022. "Berkeley Unified Numident Mortality Database: Public Administrative Records for Individual-Level Mortality Research," SocArXiv pc294, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:pc294
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/pc294
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    Cited by:

    1. Joshua R. Goldstein & Maria Osborne & Serge Atherwood & Casey F. Breen, 2023. "Mortality Modeling of Partially Observed Cohorts Using Administrative Death Records," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-20, June.
    2. Casey F. Breen, 2023. "Late-Life Changes in Ethnoracial Self-identification: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Data," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(1), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Risto Conte Keivabu & Ugofilippo Basellini & Emilio Zagheni, 2022. "Racial disparities in deaths related to extreme temperatures in the United States between 1993 and 2005," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-028, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    4. Martha Bailey & Paul Mohnen & A.R. Shariq Mohammed, 2026. "The Evolution of U.S. Educational Mobility over the 20th Century and the Role of Public Education," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2026-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

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