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Birth and Death Certificates Free — Ten Copies a Year
Pennsylvania charges $20 a certificate. Act 137 of 2024 waives that for a service member or veteran and their spouse, up to ten copies per applicant per calendar year — but not the $10 online service fee.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
Pennsylvania charges $20 a certificate. Act 137 of 2024 waives that for a service member or veteran and their spouse, up to ten copies per applicant per calendar year — but not the $10 online service fee.
What it's worth: Up to $200 a year — ten certificates at $20 each, per applicant per calendar year
- The Department states $20 for each birth certificate and $20 per death certificate regardless of quantity ordered, and a waiver limited to ten copies per applicant per calendar year.
- Ten copies at $20 is $200, which is why we weight it there. Most people will not use ten in a year; a family settling an estate can.
- The waiver does not cover the online service fee. The Department charges an additional $10 service fee for ordering online, and states the waiver does not cover it.
Who is entitled to it
- You are the service member or veteran, or their spouse — including an unremarried widow or widower.
- The character of service is other than dishonorable.
- Your home is in Pennsylvania.
Not sure whether that describes you?
Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.
How to claim it
Deadline: The ten-copy allowance resets each calendar year- 1Establish which limb you are under. The waiver applies where you or your spouse — including a widow or widower who has not remarried — is in active service, or was discharged under conditions other than dishonorable.
- 2Check what you are allowed to order free. For birth certificates the Department states the waiver covers your own certificate, your spouse’s, or that of a dependent child.
- 3For a death certificate the routes are narrower: your spouse’s certificate, a certificate for the dependent children of the deceased, or a request as estate representative with supporting documentation.
- 4Count against the annual allowance before you order. Ten copies per applicant per calendar year is the ceiling across everything you request.
- 5Think twice about ordering online. The $10 online service fee is not waived, so a waived $20 certificate ordered online still costs $10 — a paper or in-person route avoids that.
- 6If you are a funeral home filing the death record, the waiver is available where documentation shows the deceased was a veteran or the surviving spouse is an active or discharged service member.
- File with
- Division of Vital Records, Pennsylvania Department of Health
- Documents you will need
- dd214 · photo id · marriage certificate
- Annual
- The limit is ten copies per applicant per calendar year, so a January order and a December order share one allowance.
CorrectionA free certificate ordered online is not free. The Department waives the $20 certificate fee and states the waiver does not cover the online service fee, which is an additional $10. Order by post or in person and the whole cost goes away.
Worth knowingThe waiver is written around the applicant’s relationship to the certificate, not only around veteran status. A veteran cannot use it to get any certificate they like — the Department names the certificate types each limb covers.
Worth knowingAct 137 of 2024 is recent enough that a veteran refused a free certificate before that year should simply ask again. It reaches active service as well as discharged service.
Known gapThe Department states the waiver on its birth and death certificate pages. We could not read Act 137 itself — the Commonwealth’s statute hosts refused every request this session — so we do not restate its section numbering, and we do not assert whether marriage or divorce records are covered.
Sources
- authority · published policyPennsylvania Department of Health — Ordering a Death Certificate (Act 137 of 2024)
- operating · published policyPennsylvania Department of Health — Ordering a Birth Certificate (Act 137 of 2024)
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