OBJECTIVES Study subject survival is a key outcome and endpoint in pharmacoepidemiological studies. When participants in long-term studies drop out, administrative residential registries can be a useful source to investigate subjects’ vital status. The present contribution reports procedures and results of vital status inquiries in German administrative residential databases. A pharmacoepidemiological and an environmental exposure study are used as case studies.  METHODS For both case studies, residential addresses of study participants were submitted to the responsible official residential register with the purpose of collecting information about vital status or – in case of address changes – the new address was collected. For persons with multiple address changes up to 7 inquiry loops were necessary until vital status could be ascertained. RESULTS In the environmental case study assessing effects of an urban chemical accident, 20.170 addresses of German citizens (5.574 exposed and 14.596 not-exposed) were submitted to residential registries. The vital status of 96,6% of the study subjects could be confirmed by information of the registries. 80,7% were still alive 15 years after the accident (81% exposed, 80% not-exposed). 24,6% had died from cancer, 40,9% from cardiovascular diseases and 31,8% from other causes of death. No effects of the exposure on the vital status could be determined (Cox-Regression). In the pharmacoepidemiological case study evaluating long term safety of hormone replacement therapy, the survival status of 2.485 participants was investigated in country-wide residential databases. The vital status of 90,8% these participants could be confirmed using the registry information. 2.250 were still alive after 4-5 years of inclusion into the study, only 6 deaths were identified and for only 9% the status could not be determined. CONCLUSIONS Official residential registries can be a valuable source for investigating the survival status and the causes of death of study subjects in pharmaco- and general epidemiological studies.