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Public Health Scotland

Scotland’s lead national agency for improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of all of Scotland’s people.

Standard Populations

There are two methods of standardising: direct and indirect. \r\n\r\nBoth methods rely upon reference to a single standard population, which has a known population structure (in the case of direct standardisation) or known age-specific rates (in the case of indirect standardisation). The choice of standard population is important, as it influences the standardised rates or ratios obtained.