Coding ill-defined and unknown cause of death is 13 times more frequent in Denmark than in Finland

Our study suggests that if all deaths in all age groups with unclear cause of death were systematically investigated with a forensic autopsy, only 2-3/1000 deaths per year would be coded as an ill-defined and unknown cause of death in national mortality statistics. At the same time the risk to overlook unnatural deaths is decreased to a minimum. To achieve this in Denmark requires that the existing legislation on cause of death investigation would need to be changed to ensure that all deaths with unknown cause of death are investigated with a forensic autopsy.