FOI reference: FOI-2026-3509
You asked
I request the number of deaths registered in England and Wales where the underlying cause of death fell within ICD-10 Chapter XX (External causes of morbidity and mortality, codes V01–Y89), for each calendar year from 2020 to 2026.
Specifically I request this broken down by the following cause groupings:
- Assault (X85–Y09)
- Drug poisoning – accidental (X40–X44)
- Drug poisoning – intentional self-poisoning (X60–X64)
- Alcohol-specific causes (using the ONS-defined alcohol-specific death list)
- Suicide and intentional self-harm (X60–X84)
- All external causes combined (V01–Y89)
And cross-tabulated by:
- Country of birth of the deceased, grouped as: UK-born; born outside the UK (and where numbers allow, further broken down by broad world region: Europe excluding UK; Asia; Africa; Americas; Other)
- Age band: 18 to 34, 35 to 49, 50 to 64, 65 plus
- Sex: male, female
- Calendar year of registration
Where cell counts fall below five, please suppress in line with standard ONS disclosure control practice rather than withholding the entire table.
I understand ONS collects country of birth of the deceased through the death registration process and holds this at record level alongside ICD-10 cause coding. I believe this cross-tabulation is producible from ONS's own data.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Death registration data by year of registration and cause of death for deaths registered between 2020 and 2024 is available from our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice. Data for deaths registered in 2025 will be available on NOMIS in June 2026.
Instructions for use of this service:
select geography (England and Wales, regional, or by local authority)
select age (all ages, or five-year age bands)
select gender (total, or male or female)
select rates (all births, rates, or percentage of population, for example)
select the ICD10 code(s) for the underlying cause of death
select format (Excel or CSV, for example)
Although NOMIS does not hold information on the country of birth of the deceased, we can create a custom output. Information on deaths by cause, age band, sex, and country of birth, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order, subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs.
If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further.
As this information is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.