Vital Statistics of the United States 2014: Births, Life Expectancy, Deaths, and Selected Health Data

Hattis (Housing Statistics of the United States and The United States Government Internet Directory) has created a book of numbers, specifically as they relate to birth and death rates, life spans, occupational injuries, health-care expenditures, and marriage and divorce rates, among other important indicators of our collective welfare. Four major sections cover "Births," "Mortality," "Health," and "Marriage," each of which is preceded by a "Highlights" page offering textual tidbits on noteworthy trends in a bulleted list. Good news—people are living longer, explains the text: "Life expectancy increased for the entire population from 78.2 years in 2008 to 78.7 years in 2010 (Table 2–7)." Data is presented in upward of 225 tables, and interspersed at odd intervals with illustrations, such as pie charts and bar graphs. Each section concludes with a "Notes and Definitions" page, citing sources of data, technical details regarding how figures were arrived at, and official definitions of terms used, such as Fertility Rate—total number of live births per 1,000 women of reproductive age (defined as women age 15 to 44 years). As one might surmise, the information presented here was originally collected by various agencies of the U.S. government such as the Centers for Disease Control and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bernan Press is a well-known and respected publisher of governmental information.