Annual UK and constituent country figures for births, deaths, marriages, divorces, civil partnerships and civil partnership dissolutions.

Annual data on deaths registered by age, sex and selected underlying cause of death. Tables also provide both mortality rates and numbers of deaths over time.

In 2023, there were 316,025 births of new businesses, compared with 309,290 business deaths, meaning there was a net gain of around 6,735 businesses. During the provided time period, 2009, 2010 and 2022 are the only years in which the number of business deaths exceeded the number of births.

Annual statistics on births and infant deaths based on babies born in a calendar year that died before their first birthday linked to their corresponding birth notification and their corresponding death registration.

There were 11,052 deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending June 13, 2025, compared with 11,053 in the previous week. During this time period, the two weeks with the highest number of weekly deaths were in April 2020, with the week ending April 17, 2020, having 22,351 deaths, and the following week 21,997 deaths, a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Death and life expectancy As of 2022, the life expectancy for women in the UK was just over 82.5 years, and almost 78.6 years for men. Compared with 1765, when average life expectancy was under 39 years, this is a huge improvement in historical terms. Even in the more recent past, life expectancy was less than 47 years at the start of the 20th Century, and was under 70 as recently as the 1950s. Despite these significant developments in the long-term, improvements in life expectancy stalled between 2009/11 and 2015/17, and have even gone into decline since 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, for example, life expectancy at birth fell by 23 weeks for females, and 37 weeks for males. COVID-19 in the UK The first cases of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom were recorded on January 31, 2020, but it was not until a month later that cases began to rise exponentially. By March 5 of this year there were more than 100 cases, rising to 1,000 days later and passing 10,000 cumulative cases by March 26. At the height of the pandemic in late April and early May, there were around six thousand new cases being recorded daily. As of January 2023, there were more than 24.2 million confirmed cumulative cases of COVID-19 recorded in the United Kingdom, resulting in 202,156 deaths.

The Death Registrations in England and Wales, 1993-2023: Secure Access study includes annual data files for all deaths registered in England and Wales from 1993 to 2022. Death registration is a legal requirement under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836. The registration of deaths occurring in England and Wales is a service carried out by the Local Registration Service in partnership with the General Register Office (GRO). Information collected at death registration is recorded on the Registration Online (RON) system by registrars. The information supplied at the time of registration is from 1 of 4 sources:

1. details supplied by the doctor when certifying a death
2. details supplied by the informant to the registrar
3. details supplied by a coroner to the registrar following an investigation
4. details derived from the information supplied above

Death registration data are passed to the Office for National Statistics electronically from GRO for statistical purposes. Each annual dataset is a static file of death registration records available at the time the annual subset was closed. Revisions to records can still be made after the subset has been finalised but these will not be reflected in the annual dataset or used to compile statistics. The annual datasets include deaths that have been registered in that calendar year, a small percentage of these deaths may have occurred in previous years (2.9% in 2001 and 4.8% in 2015). Deaths to those usually resident in England or Wales who die abroad are not included in the dataset. Deaths registered in England and Wales to those whose usual residence is outside England and Wales are included.

Further information about mortality statistics is available from the Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths" title="Deaths">deaths web page.

Prospective users will need to apply for access to this controlled access data via the UK Data Service Secure Lab. Further information is available on the Apply to Access Controlled Data in SecureLab web pages.

Latest edition information:
For the 10th edition (May 2025), the 2023 data file has been added to the study, along with an updated 2022 data file. The variable catalogue has also been updated.

Historical chart and dataset showing U.K. birth rate by year from 1950 to 2025.

There were 694,685 live births recorded in the United Kingdom in 2021, compared with 681,560 in the previous year. Between 1887 and 2021 the year with the highest number of live births was 1920 when there were approximately 1.13 million births, while the year with the fewest births was 1977, when there were just 657,038 births. Birth rate at a historic low in 2020 At 10.2 births per 1,000 people, the birth rate of the United Kingdom in 2020 was at a historic low. After witnessing a twenty-first century high of 12.9 in 2010, the birth rate gradually declined before a sharp decrease was recorded between 2012 and 2013. Although there was a slight uptick in the birth rate in 2021, when there were 10.4 births per 1,000 people, the total fertility rate reached a low of 1.53 births per woman in the same year. As well as falling birth and fertility rates, the average age of mothers has been increasing. In 1991, the average age of mothers at childbirth was 27.7 years, compared with 30.9 years in 2021. UK population reaches 67 million In 2022, the overall population of the United Kingdom was almost 67.6 million people. Of the four countries that comprise the UK, England has by far the highest population, at 57.1 million, compared with 5.45 million in Scotland, 3.13 million in Wales, and 1.91 million in Northern Ireland. These countries are far less densely populated than England, especially when compared to London, which had approximately 5,630 people per square kilometer, compared with just 70 in Scotland. After London, North West England was the second-most densely populated area of the UK, which includes the large metropolitan areas of the cities of Manchester, and Liverpool

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the Vital Statistics for England and Wales data is to record the numbers of conceptions, live births, stillbirths, deaths and causes of death for persons in England and Wales, by gender and age. Data are available at local authority, health authority and ward level. Individual studies in the series record various parts of these data. Changes have been made over time to the way in which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects vital statistics data, resulting in some variation in the content of later studies in the series. Further information may be found in the Key Population and Vital Statistics reports available from the ONS web site.

During 2006, Sam Smith and colleagues at ESDS Government carried out work on various studies in the series prior to 2002, to improve the data format. The resulting files have been redeposited at the UKDA. More information is available in the documentation for the studies concerned.


The data include, for each local authority in England and Wales: annual summary figures for 2004 for populations, births and deaths; fertility and mortality rates; comparative numbers and rates for the region and England and Wales.


Main Topics:

The data comprise five sets of tables:

• table VS1 provides a vital statistics summary (population, births, deaths, fertility and mortality rates by region for England and Wales
• table VS2 provides birth statistics (births by age of mother, number of previous children, type of establishment where birth occurred and birth weight)
• table VS3 provides mortality statistics (deaths by cause, age and sex)
• table VS4 provides vital statistics for wards (births and deaths)
• table VS4D provides deaths from selected causes by wards

Copies of the full record of each birth, death, marriage and civil partnership registered in England and Wales since 1837 (civil partnerships since 2005).

Provisional weekly births and deaths registration data for Scotland.

Source agency: National Records of Scotland

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Weekly Births and Deaths

In 2021 the live birth rate of the United Kingdom fell to 10.4 births per 1,000 population, the lowest it had been during this time period. The UK's birth rate has been declining steadily since 2010 when the birth rate was 12.9 births per 1,000 population. After 1938, the year with the highest birth rate in the UK was 1947, when the crude birth rate was 21.2 births per 1,000 population. Under two children per mother in 2021 The most recent crude live birth rate for this statistic is based on the 694,685 births, that occurred in 2021 as well as the mid-year population estimate of 67 million for the United Kingdom. It has a close relation to the fertility rate which estimates the average number of children women are expected to have in their lifetime, which was 1.53 in this reporting year. Among the constituent countries of the UK, Northern Ireland had the highest birth rate at 11.6, followed by England at 10.5, Wales at 9.3, and Scotland at 8.7. International comparisons The UK is not alone in seeing its birth and fertility rates decline dramatically in recent decades. Across the globe, fertility rates have fallen noticeably since the 1960s, with the fertility rate for Asia, Europe, and the Americas being below two in 2021. As of this year, the global fertility rate was 2.31, and was by far the highest in Africa, which had a fertility rate of 4.12, although this too has fallen from a high of 6.72 in the late 1960s. A reduction in infant mortality, as well as better access to contraception, are factors that have typically influenced declining fertility rates recently.

UK monthly death counts per region in the period 2006 - June 2020. This data was extracted and rearranged from the Excel files on these links: England and Wales: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/monthlyfiguresondeathsregisteredbyareaofusualresidence Scotland: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths/monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths-registered-in-scotland Northern Ireland: https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/monthly-deaths

This dataset as reported to the Rural Payments Agency contains a list of births, movements and deaths from 2002 to 2010 in Great Britain.

The United Kingdom: Infant deaths per 1000 live births: The latest value from 2022 is 4 deaths per 1000 live births, unchanged from 4 deaths per 1000 live births in 2021. In comparison, the world average is 19 deaths per 1000 live births, based on data from 187 countries. Historically, the average for the United Kingdom from 1960 to 2022 is 10 deaths per 1000 live births. The minimum value, 4 deaths per 1000 live births, was reached in 2010 while the maximum of 23 deaths per 1000 live births was recorded in 1960.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) is a longitudinal birth cohort study, following a nationally representative sample of over 17,000 people born in England, Scotland and Wales in a single week of 1970. Cohort members have been surveyed throughout their childhood and adult lives, mapping their individual trajectories and creating a unique resource for researchers. It is one of very few longitudinal studies following people of this generation anywhere in the world.

Since 1970, cohort members have been surveyed at ages 5, 10, 16, 26, 30, 34, 38, 42, 46, and 51. Featuring a range of objective measures and rich self-reported data, BCS70 covers an incredible amount of ground and can be used in research on many topics. Evidence from BCS70 has illuminated important issues for our society across five decades. Key findings include how reading for pleasure matters for children's cognitive development, why grammar schools have not reduced social inequalities, and how childhood experiences can impact on mental health in mid-life. Every day researchers from across the scientific community are using this important study to make new connections and discoveries.

BCS70 is run by the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS), a research centre in the UCL Institute of Education, which is part of University College London. The content of BCS70 studies, including questions, topics and variables can be explored via the CLOSER Discovery website.

How to access genetic and/or bio-medical sample data from a range of longitudinal surveys:
For information on how to access biomedical data from BCS70 that are not held at the UKDS, see the CLS Genetic data and biological samples webpage.

Secure Access datasets
Secure Access versions of BCS70 have more restrictive access conditions than versions available under the standard End User Licence (EUL).

The 1970 British Cohort Study Deaths Dataset, 1970-2014: Special Licence Access contains data on known deaths among members of the BCS70 birth cohort from 1970 to 2014. Information on deaths has been taken from the records maintained by the organisations responsible for the study over the lifetime of the study - the National Birthday Trust Fund, the National Children’s Bureau (NCB), the SSRU and the CLS. The information has been gleaned from a variety of sources, including death certificates and other information from the National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR), and from relatives and friends during survey activities and cohort maintenance work by telephone, letter and e-mail. It includes all deaths up to 31st December 2014. In only 40 cases are the date of death unknown. By the end of December 8.7 per cent of the cohort were known to have died.

The 1970 British Cohort Study Response Dataset, 1970-2012 (SN 5641) covers other responses and outcomes of the cohort members and should be used alongside this dataset. In April 2025, the user guide for SN 5641 was added to this study to replace the previous one, at the depositor's request.


Main Topics:

The study includes the following four variables:

• BCS70 serial number
• month of death
• year of death
• source of death information

Provisional weekly births and deaths registration data for Scotland.

Source agency: General Register Office for Scotland

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Weekly Births and Deaths