FOI/2021/2621
You asked
I am writing to request for the latest data of the Top 20 leading causes of deaths in the United Kingdom in 2018, 2019, and 2020.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our mortality data are based on 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.
Information about how and why we produce leading causes of death is available here.
The top 20 leading causes of death in England and Wales, for the period 2018 to 2020, are available to download via NOMIS. This is an interactive web service that provides mortality statistics for England and Wales, broken down by calendar year of registration, age, sex and area of usual residence. To create your own bespoke tabulations of mortality data within NOMIS, please follow these instructions:
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age - All ages or 5-year age bands.
- Select Gender - Total or Male/Female
- Select rates - All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available). A full cause of death (ICD-10) breakdown is available for selection, as well as a list of the 47 leading causes of mortality.
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Provisional numbers of deaths by leading cause group for June 2021, are available in Table 11a and 11b of the Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales publication. Data for previous months are available here. An additional table was published alongside the monthly mortality analysis for June 2021, showing the top 26 leading causes of death. You can view this table here: Provisional number of deaths due to the twenty-six most common leading causes of death in England, deaths registered in June 2021.
Annual leading cause of death statistics are available in the Deaths Registered (DR) Series. You can view leading cause figures in Tables 9a,b & c. The DR Series focuses on only the top five leading causes, as opposed to ranking all causes of death. Data for 2018 and 2019 are available here.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk