Death rate of a population adjusted to a standard age distribution. As most causes of death vary significantly with people’s age and sex, the use of standardised death rates improves comparability over time and between countries, as they aim at measuring death rates independently of different age structures of populations. The standardised death rates used here are calculated on the basis of a standard European population (defined by the World Health Organization). Detailed data for 65 causes of death are available in the database (under the heading ‘Data’).                 Source: Eurostat, 2010