You asked
Please could I have data regarding deaths in the UK caused by falling trees (in both public and private ownership) from 1 January 2012 to date.
We said
ONS only hold mortality data for England and Wales. For Scotland and Northern Ireland data you will need to contact National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Centre, respectively.
ONS mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
Deaths of people who were struck by thrown, projected or falling object (including trees) are assigned the underlying cause of death ICD-10 code W20.
You can obtain numbers of deaths where the underlying cause was recorded as W20 for England and Wales, via NOMIS. I have included the figures for 2013 to 2019 (the latest year available) below. Data for 2001 to 2012 are available in our 21st century mortality dataset.
Mortality data for 2020 are still provisional, so full cause of death information is not yet available. The first complete release of 2020 mortality data by sex, age group, local area and underlying cause of death, will be in July 2021 via our Deaths Registered Series and 21st century mortality publications, with data uploaded to NOMIS shortly after.
Number of deaths where underlying cause of death was recorded as 'struck by thrown, projected or falling object' (ICD-10 code W20)
| Registration year | England | Wales |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 24 | 3 |
| 2014 | 49 | 3 |
| 2015 | 35 | 4 |
| 2016 | 21 | 2 |
| 2017 | 26 | 4 |
| 2018 | 18 | 3 |
| 2019 | 22 | 5 |
Download this table
.xls .csvUnfortunately, no further breakdown of ICD-10 code W20 is available, so it is not possible to identify how many of these deaths were specifically due to falling trees; they could include deaths as a result of being struck by other things, such as rocks or stones. It is not possible to identify whether the accident occurred at a public or private residence.
If you wish to discuss this further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.