The SSA Death Master File is used by leading government, financial, investigative, credit reporting organizations, medical research and other industries to verify identity as well as to prevent fraud and Comply With the USA Patriot Act. To assist in this effort, NTIS and SSA are working together to offer the SSA Death Master File more frequently, with fewer delays, and in different formats.

Now this essential data can be searched online, negating the need for small to medium sized organizations to maintain and update a large data file. Both the weekly and monthly updates are also offered electronically via https, reducing handling and production time. Visit https://dmf.ntis.gov for further information.

The Death Master File (DMF) from the Social Security Administration (SSA) contains over 65 million records of deaths that have been reported to SSA. This file includes the following information on each decedent, if the data are available to the SSA: social security number, name, date of birth, date of death, state or country of residence (2/88 and prior), ZIP code of last residence, and ZIP code of lump sum payment. The SSA does not have a death record for all persons; therefore, SSA does not guarantee the veracity of the file. Thus, the absence of a particular person is not proof this person is alive.