cause of death (10347 categories)

Cause of death is classified using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). As this is a classification of morbidity (ill health) as well as mortality, and as the classification is used in all countries of the world rather than just in the UK, there will be no deaths registered against most of the elements in the lowest levels of this classification.

The underlying cause of death is selected from the medical condition or conditions mentioned on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death or on the coroner's certificate. Underlying cause of death is defined by the World Health Organisation as: (a) the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or (b) the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury.

The full ICD-10 breakdown is available for selection, we have also included a second list of the https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/userguidetomortalitystatistics/leadingcausesofdeathinenglandandwalesrevised2016[leading causes of mortality]. The latter is based on a list developed by the World Health Orgainization (WHO) and each entry is an aggregation of the very detailed ICD-10 list. The leading causes classification does not include all causes, consequently summing counts for all leading causes will not equal the figure for total mortality.

In some cases more information on cause of death may become available at a later stage after the death has been registered and in such cases the conditions and the underlying causes may be amended for statistical purposes. Data at national and regional level are presented by final underlying cause of death while data below regional level are presented using original underlying cause of death (before any amendments have been applied), therefore aggregated sub-regional data to regional or national level may not agree with national and regional totals. For the latest year, data are presented by final underlying cause of death.

Deaths considered unexpected, accidental or suspicious will be referred to a coroner for investigation; this can often result in a death registration exceeding the 5-day registration period, leading to a delayed registration. Further information on https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/impactofregistrationdelaysonmortalitystatistics2016[the impact of registration delays for a range of causes] is available.

Neonatal deaths (deaths of infants aged less than 28 days) are not broken down by cause; total neonatal deaths can be accessed using a special category "Aged under 28 days - cause unclassified" at the top of the full ICD-10 classification.

More information on underlying cause of death can be found in our https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/userguidetomortalitystatistics[User Guide to Mortality Statistics].

Gender (3 categories)

Age (21 categories)

measure (6 categories)

Deaths provides the total number of deaths registered in the calendar year.

     Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population are standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. More information on the calculation of age-standardised rates is available in our https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/methodologies/userguidetomortalitystatistics[User Guide to Mortality Statistics]. 

     Age-standardised mortality rates and percentage of population are not available at mid-level super output area level. 

     Rates are suppressed when the number of deaths is less than 5 which is often the case when looking at mid-level super output area data or looking at very detailed cause of death.