Table 1. Limitations of existing completeness methods.

Death distribution methods (indirect)	Capture-recapture methods (direct)	Comparing registered deaths to estimated total deaths
inaccuracy, where method assumptions are violated inconsistent estimates depending on the data and method used (when compared with other DDMs) rely on often unrealistic assumptions about population dynamics; including the assumption of the population being closed to migration which makes subnational application of the methods problematic lack of timeliness of estimates, especially for countries whose two most recent censuses were many years ago	time- and resource-intensive inaccuracy, where assumption of independence of data sources is violated complexity when linking three sources of data	considerable complexity that limits their application, especially at the subnational level