You asked
Under the freedom of information act please confirm the following annual death rates for both 2019 and 2020
Total number of deaths
Total number of deaths by suicide
Total number of deaths from cancer ( all types)
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Deaths involving leading causes of cancer and total deaths for 2019 can be obtained from our NOMIS webservice. Please see the following data, extracted from this service:
| Cause of death | Total mortality | England and Wales | Resident outside England and Wales |
|---|---|---|---|
| A00-R99,U00-Y89 All causes, all ages | 530,841 | 529,553 | 1,288 |
| LC02 Cancer (malignant neoplasms) | 147,419 | 147,115 | 304 |
| LC02a Malignant neoplasm of bladder | 4,960 | 4,953 | 7 |
| LC02b Malignant neoplasm of brain | 4,034 | 4,020 | 14 |
| LC02c Malignant neoplasm of colon, sigmoid, rectum and anus | 15,300 | 15,278 | 22 |
| LC02d Malignant neoplasm of gallbladder and other parts of biliary tract | 951 | 951 | 0 |
| LC02e Malignant neoplasm of kidney, except renal pelvis | 3,722 | 3,715 | 7 |
| LC02f Malignant neoplasm of larynx | 688 | 686 | 2 |
| LC02g Malignant neoplasm of liver and intraheptic bile ducts | 5,276 | 5,260 | 16 |
| LC02h Malignant neoplasm of oesophagus | 7,161 | 7,149 | 12 |
| LC02i Malignant neoplasm of ovary | 3,481 | 3,472 | 9 |
| LC02j Malignant neoplasm of pancreas | 8,650 | 8,622 | 28 |
| LC02k Malignant neoplasm of prostate | 10,872 | 10,867 | 5 |
| LC02l Malignant neoplasm of stomach | 3,567 | 3,559 | 8 |
| LC02m Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung | 29,463 | 29,418 | 45 |
| LC02n Malignant neoplasm of uterus | 2,896 | 2,887 | 9 |
| LC02o Malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage | 366 | 366 | 0 |
| LC02p Malignant neoplasm of breast | 10,147 | 10,124 | 23 |
| LC02q Malignant neoplasms, stated or presumed to be primary of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue | 12,042 | 11,989 | 53 |
| LC02r Melanoma and other malignant neoplasms of skin | 2,892 | 2,889 | 3 |
Download this table
.xls .csvPlease see the following link to our end of year blog, which provides the total number of deaths registered in 2020 in England and Wales: https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/
A full ICD-10 code (cause of death) breakdown of 2020 causes of death will be available in July with the publication of the Deaths Registered Series. Therefore, analysis showing the number of deaths from cancer in 2020 is considered exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
In case it is of interest, the following publication contains the analysis on deaths from the top-ten leading causes of death for 2020: Monthly Mortality Analysis. This can be found in Tables 11a and 11b. However, this does not contain analysis on deaths from cancer.
Suicides
Our statistics are based on the date of registration, therefore our annual Suicides in the UK release is based on 2019 death registrations.
Most of these deaths require an inquest, where the coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average.
We produce provisional suicide data for England on a quarterly basis, with the next update including deaths that have been registered from January to June of 2020. This is for deaths registered in 2020, and due to the registration delay described above, most of these deaths would have occurred in 2019.
Suicides in the UK 2020 will be published in September 2021 and are therefore also considered exempt under Section 22 of the FOIA.