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.

Annual data on death registrations by single year of age for the UK (1974 onwards) and England and Wales (1963 onwards).

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.

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.

As of February 4, 2022, in the age group 75 to 84 years old COVID-19 was involved in the deaths of 32,780 males and 23,390 females in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, since the pandemic started over 72 thousand deaths in the UK among those aged 85 years and above involved COVID-19. For further information about the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data was reported at 53.693 Ratio in 2014. This records a decrease from the previous number of 53.890 Ratio for 2013. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data is updated yearly, averaging 83.533 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2014, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 111.369 Ratio in 1963 and a record low of 53.693 Ratio in 2014. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Adult mortality rate, female, is the probability of dying between the ages of 15 and 60--that is, the probability of a 15-year-old female dying before reaching age 60, if subject to age-specific mortality rates of the specified year between those ages.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) University of California, Berkeley, and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The Human Mortality Database.; Weighted average;

There were 11,607 deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending February 21, 2025, compared with 12,365 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 in decline since 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, for example, life expectancy at birth fell by 23 weeks for females, and 37 weeks for males.2. 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.

This statistic shows the total number of alcohol-specific death rates in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2022, by age and gender. Male death figures tended to be significantly higher than that of their female counterparts. In 2022,1045 males aged between 55 and 59 years died of alcohol-specific conditions, while 579 women in the same age died as a result of alcohol use.

In 2022 life expectancy for both males and females at birth fell when compared to 2021. Male life expectancy fell from 78.71 years to 78.57 years, and from 82.68 years to 82.57 years for women.

In February 2025, there were 48,895 deaths in England and Wales, compared with 50,358 in February 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.

Mean, median and modal ages at death in the UK and its constituent countries, 2001 to 2003 and 2016 to 2018.

In 2022, the life expectancy at birth for women born in the UK was 82.57 years, compared with 78.57 years for men. By age 65 men had a life expectancy of 18.25 years, compared with 20.76 years for women.

Live births by usual residence of mother, and General Fertility Rates (GFR), and Deaths and Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR) by ward and local authority.

The births and deaths data comes from ONS Vital Statistics Table 4.
Small area data is only available directly from ONS under licence.

The general fertility rate (GFR) is the number of live births per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

SMR measures whether the population of an area has a higher or lower number of deaths than expected based on the age profile of the population (more deaths are expected in older populations). The SMR is defined as follows: SMR = (Observed no. of deaths per year)/(Expected no. of deaths per year).

Rates are provisional, they are based on the GLA 2011 based SHLAA ward projections (standard) released in January 2012. At national level, however, they are based on the mid-year population estimates.

More information is on the ONS website.

Legacy unique identifier: P00085

Provisional deaths registration data for single year of age and average age of death (median and mean) of persons whose death involved coronavirus (COVID-19), England and Wales. Includes deaths due to COVID-19 and breakdowns by sex.

This dataset provides deaths in England in 1990 and 2013 for all ages and age‐standardized rates (per 100,000) by sex with 95% confidence interval and percentage change.

Following Edward Jenner's development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, the death rate due to smallpox in England and Wales dropped significantly. Although Jenner's work was published in 1797, it would take over half a century for the British government to make vaccination compulsory for all infants. Between 1847 and 1853, when vaccination was optional, children under the age of five years had, by far, the largest number of deaths; the total death rate was 1.6 thousand deaths per million people, which was more than five times the overall death rate due to smallpox. When compulsory vaccination was introduced, this helped bring the smallpox death rate in this age group down by over fifty percent between 1854 and 1871. When compulsory vaccination was enforced with penalties in the wake of the Great Pandemic of the 1870s, the smallpox death rate among children under the age of five dropped to approximately fifteen percent of its optional vaccination level. Increase among adults Along with the youngest age group, children aged five to ten years also saw their death rates decrease by roughly two thirds, and the death rate among those aged ten to 15 declined by just under one third during this time. It was among adults, aged above 15 years, where the introduction of mandatory vaccination had an adverse effect on their death rates; increasing by fifty percent among young adults, and almost doubling among those aged 25 to 45. The reason for this was because, contrary to Jenner's theory, vaccination did not guarantee lifelong protection, and immunization gradually wore off making vaccinated people susceptible to the virus again in adulthood. There was some decline in the smallpox death rates among adults throughout the 1870s and 1880s, as revaccination became more common, and the enforced vaccination of children prevented smallpox from spreading as rapidly as in the pre-vaccination era. Overall trends While the introduction of mandatory vaccination saw the number of smallpox deaths increase for age groups above 15 years, the overall rate among all ages decreased, due to the huge drop in deaths among infants and children. The smallpox death rate dropped by over one quarter when compulsory vaccination was introduced, and it then fell to just over one third of it's optional-vaccination level when these measures were enforced. The development of the smallpox vaccine and the implementation of mandatory vaccination led to the eradication of the disease in Britain by 1934, and contributed greatly to the demographic developments of the twentieth century, such as the declines in fertility rate and birth rate, and the increase in life expectancy.

To reduce deaths from stroke.

The child mortality rate in the United Kingdom, for children under the age of five, was 329 deaths per thousand births in 1800. This means that approximately one in every three children born in 1800 did not make it to their fifth birthday. Over the course of the next 220 years, this number has dropped drastically, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century, and the rate has dropped to its lowest point ever in 2020 where it is just four deaths per thousand births.

Death registrations by single year of age for the United Kingdom and England and Wales.

This publication has been discontinued and releases of this data will be included within Death Registrations Summary Tables. The last edition to be published was United Kingdom 2011.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: Deaths by single year of age