Some States Don't Report to the Social Security Administration

The Social Security Death Index does not include data from states that elect not to share their vital records with the Social Security Administration. The easiest way to tell if "your state" of interest is not reporting them is to search for how many entries that state has in the SSDI in 2012 and compare that number to an earlier year of 2009 or 2008. If the number in 2012 is significantly lower, then chances are the state is not reporting them.

I knew this, but it took me a while to remember it when I kept failing to locate a death in the spring of 2012 in Rhode Island.