More than a century of comparable death statistics: the classification the health agency keeps

Background

The International Classification of Diseases, in full the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, is the standard WHO keeps for recording disease and cause of death. For more than a century it has given the world comparable statistics on causes of mortality and morbidity, from one place to another and from one period to the next. Its latest version, ICD-11, was adopted by the 72nd World Health Assembly and replaces ICD-10. The classification lets mortality and morbidity data gathered in different countries or regions, and at different times, be recorded, analysed, interpreted and compared in a systematic way. ICD operates within WHO's own constitutional mandate to establish international nomenclatures, alongside the WHO Nomenclature regulations and the surveillance duties under the International Health Regulations. With ICD-11 it becomes possible, for the first time, to count traditional medicine services and encounters. The classification is distributed under a Creative Commons licence and its content is openly permitted for use across all WHO Member States.