Registered leading causes of death by age, sex and country, UK, 2001 to 2018

In 2018 there were over 40 thousand deaths caused by ischaemic heart diseases in the United Kingdom, making it the leading cause of death in that year. Since 2001 there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people dying from dementia or alzheimers, which caused 26.5 thousand deaths in 2018, an increase of almost ten thousand when compared with 2012.

Mortality from leading causes of death by ethnic group, England and Wales, 2012 to 2019.

In 1948, over a quarter of deaths recorded in England and Wales were caused by heart disease. The National Health Service was founded in this year in the UK and aimed at improving the health of British citizens.

Annual data on death registrations by area of usual residence in the UK. Summary tables including age-standardised mortality rates.

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 January 2022 update, 2 new indicators have been added to the profile:

• mortality rate for deaths involving COVID-19, all ages
• mortality rate for deaths involving COVID-19, under 75s

COVID-19 was the leading cause of death in England in 2020, but the pandemic had a much greater impact on mortality in some areas than others. These indicators have been included alongside other indicators for leading causes of death in the Mortality Profile to provide a more complete picture of mortality for local areas in 2020.

If you would like to send us feedback on the tool please contact profilefeedback@phe.gov.uk.

There were 667,479 deaths in the United Kingdom in 2021, compared with 689,629 in 2020. Between 2003 and 2011, the annual number of deaths in the UK fell from 612,085 to just over 552,232. Since 2011 however, the annual number of annual deaths in the United Kingdom has steadily grown, with the number recorded in 2020, the highest since 1918 when there were 715,246 deaths. Both of these spikes in the number of deaths can be attributed to infectious disease pandemics. The great influenza pandemic of 1918, which was at its height towards the end of World War One, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused numerous deaths in 2020. Impact of COVID-19 The weekly death figures for England and Wales highlight the tragic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic. In two weeks in April 2020, there were 22,351 and 21,997 deaths respectively, almost 12,000 excess deaths in each of those weeks. Although hospitals were the most common location of these deaths, a significant number of these deaths also took place in care homes, with 7,911 deaths taking place in care homes for the week ending April 24, 2020, far higher than usual. By the summer of 2020, the number of deaths in England and Wales reached more usual levels, before a second wave of excess deaths hit the country that Winter, and peaking in late January 2021. Although subsequent waves of COVID-19 cases resulted in far fewer deaths, the number of excess deaths remained elevated throughout 2022. Long-term life expectancy trends As of 2022 the life expectancy for men in the United Kingdom was 78.57, and almost 82.57 for women, compared with life expectancies of 75 for men and 80 for women in 2002. In historical terms, this is a major improvement in relation to the mid-eighteenth century, when the overall life expectancy was just under 39 years. Between 2011 and 2017, improvements in life expectancy in the UK did start to decline, and have gone into reverse since 2018/20. Between 2020 and 2022 for example, life expectancy for men in the UK has fallen by over 37 weeks, and by almost 23 weeks for women, when compared with the previous year.

In 2022, the mortality rate of coronary heart disease in the United Kingdom was *** deaths per 100,000 population, which was one of the lowest rates in the provided time interval. The mortality rate in 2000 was *** per 100,000, meaning the mortality rate has decreased by over ** percent since then. Decline in CVD mortality Alongside the fall in mortality rate from coronary heart disease, deaths overall from cardiovascular diseases have fallen since the start of the century. In 2022, there were *** deaths per 100,000 from cardiovascular diseases in the UK, a decline of about ** percent since 2000. Furthermore, mortality from strokes has decreased by almost ** percent between 2000 and 2022. Incidence of CVD staying at similar levels The decline in the mortality of cardiovascular diseases shows the advances of modern medicine, as the incidence of these diseases has not varied much in the past few years. In 2022/23, around *** thousand people in the UK were diagnosed with coronary heart disease, a fall of ** thousand since 2012. However, *** thousand individuals were diagnosed with a stroke, an increase of over ** thousand when compared with 2012.

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.

Provisional data on death registrations and death occurrences in England and Wales, broken down by sex and age. Includes deaths due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and leading causes of death.

In 2023 life expectancy for both males and females at birth rose when compared to 2022. Male life expectancy increased from 78.58 years to 78.82 years, and from 82.57 years to 82.77 years for females. Throughout most of this period, there is a steady rise in life expectancy for both males and females, with improvements in life expectancy beginning to slow in the 2010s and then starting to decline in the 2020s. Life expectancy since the 18th Century Although there has been a recent dip in life expectancy in the UK, long-term improvements to life expectancy stretch back several centuries. In 1765, life expectancy was below 39 years, and only surpassed 40 years in the 1810s, 50 years by the 1910s, 60 years by the 1930s and 70 by the 1960s. While life expectancy has broadly improved since the 1700s, this trajectory was interrupted at various points due to wars and diseases. In the early 1920s, for example, life expectancy suffered a noticeable setback in the aftermath of the First World War and Spanish Flu Epidemic. Impact of COVID-19 While improvements to UK life expectancy stalled during the 2010s, it wasn't until the 2020s that it began to decline. The impact of COVID-19 was one of the primary factors in this respect, with 2020 seeing the most deaths in the UK since 1918. The first wave of the pandemic in Spring of that year was a particularly deadly time, with weekly death figures far higher than usual. A second wave that winter saw a peak of almost 5,700 excess deaths a week in late January 2021, with excess deaths remaining elevated for several years afterward.

Legacy unique identifier: P00476

This data shows premature deaths (Age under 75) from Respiratory Disease, numbers and rates by gender, as 3-year range.

Smoking is the major cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), one of the major Respiratory diseases. COPD (which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema) results in many hospital admissions. Respiratory diseases can also be caused by environmental factors (such as pollution, or housing conditions) and influenza. Respiratory disease mortality rates show a socio-economic gradient.

Directly Age-Standardised Rates (DASR) are shown in the data, where numbers are sufficient, so that death rates can be directly compared between areas. The DASR calculation applies Age-specific rates to a Standard (European) population to cancel out possible effects on crude rates due to different age structures among populations, thus enabling direct comparisons of rates.

A limitation on using mortalities as a proxy for prevalence of health conditions is that mortalities may give an incomplete view of health conditions in an area, as ill-health might not lead to premature death.

Data source: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) indicator 4.07i. This data is updated annually.

In the United Kingdom (UK), the death rate due to cardiovascular diseases has decreased dramatically from its peak in 2002 with ***** deaths per 100,000 population to ***** deaths per 100,000 in 2020. The most common CVDs are heart attack, stroke, heart failure, arrhythmia, and heart valve complications. Symptoms of CVDs include chest pain, breathlessness, fatigue, swollen limbs, and irregular heartbeat.

Annual age-standardised and age-specific mortality rates by leading causes of death for England and Wales, 2001 to 2018 (Experimental Statistics)

Legacy unique identifier: P00203