Summary of Vital Statistics for Texas 2012

In 2003, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson approved the revision to the U.S. Standard Certificates of Birth, Death, and Fetal Death and encouraged all states to adopt them. The process involved in this revision, as well as details of what was revised, can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vital_certificate_revisions.htm. Consequently, some of the data are not directly comparable with previous revisions.

In 2005, Texas adopted the new U.S. Standard Certificate of Live Birth. The new U.S. Standard Certificates of Death and Fetal Death were implemented in 2006 in Texas.

There were 382,438 live births to Texas residents in 2012, an increase of 1.4 percent (5,164 more births) from 2011. The 2012 crude birth rate of 14.7 deaths per 1,000 estimated population was the same as in 2011.

The percentage of women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester was 62.6. This figure is not directly comparable to years prior to 2005 due to the implementation of a new birth certificate in Texas in 2005 (source: Technical Appendix from Vital Statistics of the United States, 2004. Natality in the Documentation of the Detail Natality Public Use File for 2004). In 2012, 98.8 percent of Texas resident births were delivered in a hospital. Physicians delivered 95.3 percent of infants born to Texas residents. The proportion of C-section deliveries remained at 35.3 percent as it was in 2011.

Overall life expectancy for an infant born in Texas in 2012 was 78.3 years. A male infant born in 2012 could expect to live 75.8 years while a female infant could expect to live 80.7 years. Female infants had a higher life expectancy than male infants regardless of racial/ethnic group.

The number of deaths to Texas residents in 2012 was 173,935. This was a 3.5 percent increase in total deaths over 2011, when there were 167,997. The 2012 crude death rate of 6.7 deaths per 1,000 estimated population was slightly up from 6.5 in 2011. The natural increase of the Texas population, the excess of resident births over resident deaths, was 208,503.

Starting with 1999 deaths, the Vital Statistics Unit implemented the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). This change in the classification of causes of death explains the presence of new leading causes (like Alzheimer's disease) and may partially explain changes in other causes of death.

In 2012, diseases of the heart claimed 38,987 lives and continued to be the leading cause of death, followed by cancer with 38,096 deaths. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (formerly known as COPD) ranked third with 9,520 deaths, and cerebrovascular diseases ranked fourth with 9,297 deaths. The fifth leading cause of death was accidents, which accounted for 9,267 deaths. These five leading causes were responsible for 60.5 percent of Texas resident deaths in 2012.

Completing the ten leading causes of death were: Alzheimer's disease, 5,168 deaths; diabetes mellitus, 5,127 deaths; septicemia, 3,616; nephritis and related diseases, with 3,522 deaths; and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, 3,298 deaths. The ten leading causes together accounted for 72.4 percent of deaths to Texas residents.

The total number of infant deaths increased from 2,136 in 2011 to 2,224 in 2012. The infant mortality rate increased from 5.7 in 2011 to 5.8 in 2012.

The number of fetal deaths decreased from 2,087 in 2011 to 2,028 in 2012. The fetal death ratio decreased from 5.5 in 2011 to 5.3 in 2012.  

There were 184,690 marriages in 2012 compared to 177,219 marriages in 2011. The number of divorces increased from 79,024 in 2011 to 80,030 in 2012.

The birth, death, and fetal death tabulations provided in this report are for residents of Texas. Births and fetal deaths are classified by the mother's county and city of residence. Deaths are classified by the county and city of residence of the decedent. Marriages are reported by county in which the marriage license was issued and divorces are reported by county in which the divorce decree was granted.  

Births and deaths which occurred in Texas to residents of other states are excluded from these tabulations. Events which occurred to Texas residents, regardless of the place of occurrence, are included. A small percentage of Texas resident events occur in other states, and knowledge of these events is obtained through an interstate transcript exchange in cooperation with other states and the National Center for Health Statistics.