Public can review Wyoming vital statistics reports and data online
by Wyoming Department of Health
October 4, 2012
The broad information collected by the Wyoming Department of Health’s Vital Statistics Services Office offers interesting snapshots about Wyoming and its residents for the public.
To view what’s available, visit http://www.health.wyo.gov/rfhd/vital records online and click on the left-side tab labeled "Annual Reports and Provisional Data." The 2011 report, for example, contains summary data on Wyoming birth, deaths, marriages and divorces.
Jim McBride, Vital Statistics Services Program manager with the Wyoming Department of Health, noted Wyoming’s population continues to grow. "At the end of 2011 the Census Bureau estimated Wyoming’s population at 568,158," he said. "In 2002 Wyoming’s population exceeded 500,000 for the first time since 1985."
Although the population continues to grow, the number of annual births has remained comparatively constant and within a narrow range of just a few hundred. "For example in 2005 there were 7,231 births and in 2011 there were 7,339," McBride said. "Behind those numbers, we are seeing that mothers are having children later in life and fewer of our teens are having children."
"We are living longer too in Wyoming," McBride said. Since 1990 Wyoming citizens have added two years to their life expectancy. Primary causes of death parallel national data with heart disease, cancers and respiratory diseases ranking at the top.
"It also appears that Wyoming residents are honoring family deaths a little differently," McBride said. "Although the number of deaths per year has remained relatively constant, 80 percent of families in 2000 elected a traditional burial ceremony and only 25 percent opted for cremation. By 2011, more than 60 percent chose cremation and only 30 percent selected a traditional burial."
Additional tables allow those interested to view tables highlighting specific subjects as well as county and other demographic data.
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