Record Linkage

• Record linkage is the grouping of records about the same entity, using some sort of identifier (e.g. hospital insurance number).
• Probabilistic record linkage is record linkage with non-unique identifiers (e.g. name & date of birth), where one estimates the likelihood that records are referring to the same entity. (GRLS, Statistics Canada 2006)

In Switzerland we don’t have an unique identifier as in the Nordic countries. Therefore we are not able to easily link different registries together, as for example the individual records from the Census to the individual records of the mortality statistics. We applied different methods to link available datasets without an unique identifier using key variables. The following pages give an introduction to the record linkage methodology and the software used in the SNC project.