Table 19 presents late foetal death ratios specific for age of mother and total birth order for as many years as possible between 1990 and 1999.
Description of variables: Late foetal deaths are foetal deaths of 28 or more completed weeks of gestation. Foetal deaths of unknown gestational age are included with those of 28 or more weeks.
Age is defined as age at last birthday, that is, the difference between the date of birth and the date of the occurrence of the event, expressed in completed solar years. The age classification used in this table is the following under 20 years, 5-year age groups through 40-44 years, and 45 years and over.
Total birth order is defined as the numerical order of the late foetal death being recorded in relation to all previous issue of the mother, irrespective of whether the issue was live-born or born dead (foetal death). Except where otherwise indicated, 10 categories are used to classify total-birth order: 1 through 9 and 10 or more total births.
computation: The ratios for total late foetal deaths by birth order specific for
age of mother are the number of total late foetal deaths in each birth-order/age
group (as shown in table 18 per
When late foetal deaths to mothers of unknown age are less than 10 per cent of the total, they have been distributed proportionately in accordance with late foetal deaths to mothers of known age by the Statistics Division of the United Nations prior to computing the ratios. Births to mothers of unknown age have also been distributed proportionately in accordance with births to mothers of known age.
Late foetal deaths for which birth order was unknown were not distributed and rates were not computed for this category.
foetal deaths to mothers of unknown age are 10 per cent or more of the total,
then ratios were not computed.
Ratios presented in this table have also been limited to those for
countries or areas having at least a total of
Reliability of data: Data from civil registers of late foetal deaths which are reported as incomplete (less than 90 per cent completeness) or of unknown completeness are considered unreliable and are set in italics rather than in roman type. Table 15 and the technical notes for that table provide more detailed information on the completeness of late foetal death registration. For more information about the quality of vital statistics in general, and the information available on the basis of the completeness estimates in particular, see section 4.2 of the Technical Notes.
Limitations: The ratios shown in this table are subject to the some limitations which affect the numerators and denominators used in their computation. These limitations are described in the technical notes for tables18 and 6 respectively.
In interpreting these data it should be noted that the data in the numerator refer to total birth order, while the data in the denominator refer to the live-birth order.
The limited coverage of this table is the result of the operation of several criteria that had to be met before ratios were computed. Chief among these was the location of a distribution of live births as corresponding to the late foetal-death series, i.e., cross-classified by age of mother and total birth order. In the absence of a direct correspondence in birth-order composition, an assumption was allowed; this was that if the method of determining birth order was unknown for late foetal deaths, but known to be birth order for total births, the two series were considered to correspond.
Coverage: Late foetal death ratios specific for age of mother and total-birth order are shown for 16 countries or areas.
Earlier data: Late foetal death ratios specific for age of mother and total birth order have been shown previously in issues of the Demographic Yearbook featuring natality. For information on years covered, readers should consult the Index.
 For definition, see section 22.214.171.124 of the Technical Notes.