The Pennsylvania Department of Health, Division of Vital Records issues certificates only for deaths that happened in Pennsylvania from 1906 onward. The certificate is printed on security paper with a raised seal, and since 2019 the state has offered it in two forms. The version with medical information shows the cause and manner of death and is the one life insurers and pension plans usually ask for, as well as relatives tracing a family medical history. The version without medical information leaves those details off and is meant for closing bank and utility accounts or transferring title to property; it exists only for deaths after 2019. The department's advice is to ask whoever wants the document which version they will accept before ordering.
Pennsylvania draws a sharp line at 50 years. A certificate younger than that is restricted and held by the Division of Vital Records, which issues it only to eligible applicants. Once a certificate turns 50 it becomes a public record and the original is transferred to the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg, which sells non certified copies to anyone. The Department of Health remains the only source of a certified copy, even of a public record, so a genealogist who needs a sealed copy still orders from Vital Records and marks the application as a genealogical request.
- $20 a certificate: the same price however many copies are ordered, set under the Administrative Code of 1929 and not refundable once deposited.
- Two versions: with medical information for insurance and pensions, without it for banks, utilities and titles, the second only for deaths after 2019.
- Military waiver: Act 137 of 2024 waives the fee for qualifying service members, veterans and their spouses, up to ten copies a year.
- $5 at the Archives: non certified copies of 1906 to 1975 death certificates come from the State Archives with the certificate number in hand.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Pennsylvania's own systems: the Department of Health page on ordering a death certificate, the Department of Health vital records processing times, the Department of Health vital records public offices page, the Department of Health multi year search page, the Department of Health genealogy page, the State Archives guide to death records, the State Archives page on requesting archival birth or death certificates, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who is eligible
Every applicant must be 18 or older, fill in the Application for Death Certificate, sign it and show valid identification. The family members who qualify without further proof of interest are the spouse, a parent, a sibling or half sibling, a child, a grandparent or great grandparent, and a grandchild or great grandchild. A step parent qualifies by sending the marriage certificate that created the relationship, and a step child does the same with the parent's marriage certificate.
Relatives outside that list, and the department names former spouses specifically, must submit documents showing a direct interest. An attorney or legal representative of the estate, and an executor or administrator, qualify with additional documents. So does a person with a direct financial interest, who must likewise send proof. Applications involving a subpoena, a court order or a power of attorney take longer to process, the department warns.
Fees, the online surcharge and the military waiver
The certificate costs $20 regardless of how many are ordered, and the department deposits the payment on receipt, so a rejected application does not come with a refund. Mailed applications pay by check or money order to VITAL RECORDS, and cash is not accepted. Online orders go through mycertificates.health.pa.gov, run by VitalChek, which the department calls the only vendor authorized to collect orders on its behalf; it adds a $10 processing fee and takes credit cards, with delivery by first class mail or pickup at a Vital Records office.
Any other ordering website, the department says, turns the order into a paper application and adds delay, and complaints about such sites go to the Attorney General's consumer protection office.
Act 137 of 2024 waives the $20 for members of the armed forces in active service, for those discharged under conditions other than dishonorable, and for their spouses, including a widow or widower who has not remarried. The waiver applies when the applicant is ordering a spouse's certificate, applying for a dependent child of the person who died, or acting as the estate's representative, it is capped at ten copies per applicant per calendar year, and it never covers the online fee.
A funeral home that filed the death record, or inherited the case, can also claim it when the record shows the deceased was a veteran or the surviving spouse served, following State Registrar Notice SRN 2024-03. The waiver does not apply to genealogy requests.
Walk in offices, the mail address and how long it takes
For speed the department points to its six Vital Records public offices, in Erie at 156 East 14th Street, in Harrisburg at Forum Place on Walnut Street, in New Castle on Nesbitt Road, in Philadelphia at 110 North 8th Street, in Pittsburgh on Seventh Avenue and in Scranton at the State Office Building on Lackawanna Avenue, each open weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed on holidays. Since October 6, 2025 the Philadelphia office sees customers by appointment only, booked through the state's own scheduler, and the department warns that other appointment websites will not book a slot.
Mailed applications go to the Division of Vital Records, Death Certificate Processing Unit, PO Box 1528, New Castle, PA 16103, and certificates come back by first class mail. The department's processing times page gives about 3 weeks for a death certificate whether the order is placed online or on paper, counted from the day a complete application arrives and not counting delivery. Changing a death record takes about 8 weeks when the request is complete, and about 12 weeks when it is suspended over eligibility, conflicting information, missing signatures or missing evidence.
The telephone line, 724-656-3100 or 844-228-3516 toll free, is staffed weekdays from 7:15 a.m. to 6 p.m. and weekends from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
When the year of death is unknown
A standard application needs a year. Without one, the department requires an Application for a Multi-Year Search of a Death Record, which asks for at least the first and last name and, where possible, the county of death, and each spelling variant needs its own application. The base charge is $45 for a ten year span, and the department cautions that 1955 through 1965 counts as eleven years, so a ten year request must run, for example, 1956 through 1965.
Each further ten year block costs $25, the applicant must still meet the normal eligibility rules, and these searches run 2 to 4 weeks beyond the posted processing time. A search that finds nothing produces a certified No Record Certification of Death.
The State Archives and the public records
The State Archives death records guide says the Commonwealth began issuing death certificates in 1906, and that before then deaths were recorded only sporadically by counties and some cities. It lists the 1852 to 1854 registers kept by county Registers of Wills, which cover 49 of the 64 counties of the time, and county death registers from 1893 to 1905, most still held by the county Register of Wills or Clerk of the Orphans Court. A typical certificate gives the name, age, date and place of death, cause of death, occupation, burial place and the parents' names.
The Archives holds original death certificates for 1906 through 1975, publishes surname indices by year to find the certificate number, and sells non certified copies for $5 each, a fee it keeps even when the search fails. A request needs the name, the date of death and the certificate number; staff will look up a number only through the mail reference order form. Orders by online form or by mail to the State Archives at 1681 North Sixth Street in Harrisburg take 2 to 3 weeks. Digitized certificates for 1906 through 1972 are on Ancestry, free to Pennsylvania residents through the Ancestry Pennsylvania portal.
Where the state's own pages disagree
The Department of Health genealogy page still says the Historical and Museum Commission holds indices for public death records from 1906 to 1968, while the Archives itself now lists originals and indices running to 1975, consistent with the 50 year rule the Health Department's multi year search page states. Both pages agree that self search of the files at the Division of Vital Records is not allowed, that all certified copies of public records still come from Vital Records, and that deaths before 1906 are a county matter, reached through the clerks of the Orphans' Court in each county.
Questions about Pennsylvania death records
Related Pennsylvania records
The same Division of Vital Records issues Pennsylvania birth certificates, and the Pennsylvania vital records page covers marriage and divorce. For records the Right to Know Law opens, see Pennsylvania public records law, and for county Register of Wills offices start at Pennsylvania.