Between 1953 and 2021, the death rate of the United Kingdom fluctuated between a high of 12.2 deaths per 1,000 people in 1962 and a low of 8.7 in 2011. From 2011 onwards, the death rate creeped up slightly and, in 2020, reached 10.3 deaths per 1,000 people. In 2021, the most recent year provided here, the death rate was ten, a decline from 2020 but still higher than in almost every year in the twenty-first century. The recent spike in the death rate corresponds to the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, with the first cases recorded in early 2020. Most deaths since 1918 in 2020 In 2020, there were 689,629 deaths in the United Kingdom, the highest in more than a century. Although there were fewer deaths in 2021, at 667,479, this was still far higher than in recent years. When looking at the weekly deaths in England and Wales for this time period, two periods stand out for reporting far more deaths than usual. The first period was between weeks 13 and 22 of 2020, which saw two weeks in late April report more than 20,000 deaths. Excess deaths for the week ending April 17, 2020, were 11,854, and 11,539 for the following week. Another wave of deaths occurred in January 2021, when there were more than 18,000 deaths per week between weeks three and five of that year. Improvements to life expectancy slowing Between 2020 and 2022, life expectancy in the United Kingdom was approximately 82.57 years for women and 78.57 years for men. Compared with life expectancy in 1980/82 this marked an increase of around six years for women and almost eight years for men. Despite these long-term developments, improvements to life expectancy have been slowing in recent years, and have declined since 2017/19. As of 2022, the country with the highest life expectancy in the World was Japan, which was 84.5 years, followed by South Korea, at 83.6 years.

U.K. death rate for 2025 is 9.51, a 0.26% increase from 2024.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>U.K. death rate for 2024 was <strong>9.49</strong>, a <strong>0.26% increase</strong> from 2023.</li>
<li>U.K. death rate for 2023 was <strong>9.46</strong>, a <strong>0.17% increase</strong> from 2022.</li>
<li>U.K. death rate for 2022 was <strong>9.44</strong>, a <strong>0.16% increase</strong> from 2021.</li>
</ul>Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.

Death rate, crude (per 1,000 people) in United Kingdom was reported at 9.518 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Death rate, crude - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on May of 2025.

There were 2,784 infant deaths in the United Kingdom in 2021, compared with 2,620 in the previous year. The number of infant deaths in 2020 was the fewest in the provided time period, especially compared with 1900 when there were 163,470 infant deaths.

The death rate in the United Kingdom decreased to 9.1 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants compared to the previous year. Over the observed period, the death rate has been subject to fluctuation.The crude death rate refers to the number of deaths in a given year, expressed per 1,000 population. When studied in combination with the crude birth rate, the rate of natural population increase can be determined.Find more statistics on other topics about the United Kingdom with key insights such as infant mortality rate, total life expectancy at birth, and total fertility rate.

Mortality rates (qx) values from the national life tables release, presented in time series format. These statistics are for males and females for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the UK.

Period and cohort mortality rates (qx) for England and Wales using the principal projection by single year of age 0 to 100.

In 2023, the age-specific death rate for men aged 90 or over in England and Wales was 248.1 per one thousand population, and 215.1 for women. Except for infants that were under the age of one, younger age groups had the lowest death rate, with the death rate getting progressively higher in older age groups.

There were 9,765 deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending May 9, 2025, compared with 12,484 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.

UNICEF's country profile for United Kingdom, including under-five mortality rates, child health, education and sanitation data.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has updated the mortality profile.

The profile brings together a selection of mortality indicators, including from other OHID data tools such as the https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/public-health-outcomes-framework/data" class="govuk-link">Public Health Outcomes Framework, making it easier to assess outcomes across a range of causes of death.

For the March 2023 update, 12 new indicators have been added to the profile:

• mortality rate for deaths due to COVID-19, all ages
• under 75 mortality rate for deaths due to COVID-19
• mortality rate from all cardiovascular diseases, all ages
• mortality rate from heart disease, all ages
• mortality rate from stroke, all ages
• mortality rate from cancer, all ages
• mortality rate from breast cancer, all ages
• mortality rate from colorectal cancer, all ages
• mortality rate from liver disease, all ages
• mortality rate from respiratory disease, all ages
• under 75 mortality rate from lung cancer
• mortality rate from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, all ages

If you would like to send us feedback on the tool please contact pha-ohid@dhsc.gov.uk.

Age-standardised mortality rates for deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19), non-COVID-19 deaths and all deaths by vaccination status, broken down by age group.

In March 2025, there were 48,814 deaths in England and Wales, compared with 46,091in March 2024. In April 2020, there were 88,038 deaths, which was an increase of almost 40,000 from the month before, and by far the month with the most deaths in this period. The dramatic increase in deaths in April can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which first hit the UK in early 2020.

Legacy unique identifier: P00085

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

U.K. maternal mortality rate for 2020 was 10.00, a 11.11% increase from 2019.

<ul style='margin-top:20px;'>

<li>U.K. maternal mortality rate for 2019 was <strong>9.00</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from 2018.</li>
<li>U.K. maternal mortality rate for 2018 was <strong>9.00</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from 2017.</li>
<li>U.K. maternal mortality rate for 2017 was <strong>9.00</strong>, a <strong>0% increase</strong> from 2016.</li>
</ul>Maternal mortality ratio is the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births. The data are estimated with a regression model using information on the proportion of maternal deaths among non-AIDS deaths in women ages 15-49, fertility, birth attendants, and GDP.

Legacy unique identifier: P00165

Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000 live births) in United Kingdom was reported at 4.5 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. United Kingdom - Mortality rate, under-5 (per 1,000) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on June of 2025.