Deaths registered in England and Wales: 2025

All our statistics on mortality in England and Wales come from death registrations.

Death registrations in 2025

• There were 570,988 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2025, an increase of 0.4% compared with 2024 (568,613 deaths).

• The age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) in England and Wales was 913 deaths per 100,000 people, the lowest since our time series began in 1994.

• Dementia and Alzheimer's disease continued to be the leading cause of death in England and Wales, with 72,272 deaths registered (12.7% of all deaths).

• For the fourth consecutive year, the North East was the region of England with the highest ASMRs for both males (1,189) and females (880); among females, this rate has remained highest in the North East since 2015.

• In Wales, Merthyr Tydfil continued to have the highest ASMR for males (1,509); Blaenau Gwent continued to have the highest ASMR for females (1,033).

Death occurrences in 2024 and previous years

• 567,608 deaths occurred in England and Wales in 2024 and were registered by the end of March 2026.

• In contrast, 571,010 deaths occurred in England and Wales in 2023 and were registered by the end of March 2025.

• 589,293 deaths occurred in 2022 and were registered by the end of March 2024.

The difference between death registrations and occurrences

There is usually a delay between the date when a death occurs and the date it is registered. The number of days between death occurrence and registration varies, and can be longer in certain cases, such as when a death is referred to a coroner.

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With these statistics, you can:

• explore complete and consistent data for long-term analysis by using death registrations

• find a fair indication of trends reflected in death occurrences, but the time lag between registration and occurrence can mean figures change, so figures may not match previous years

• compare deaths between different groups of people and time periods more meaningfully because we use age-standardised mortality rates that allow for age differences in the structure of populations

With these statistics, you cannot:

• get final estimates for death occurrences in 2024; we have used provisional death registration data for 2026 in our death occurrence figures for 2024

Find more guidance in the Quality, methods and data sources section.

Figure 1: The age-standardised mortality rate in 2025 was the lowest in 30 years

Number of registered deaths and age-standardised mortality rate, England and Wales, 1994 to 2025

Short-term trends

• There were 570,988 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2025, an increase of 0.4% compared with 2024 (568,613 deaths).

• The age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) in England and Wales was 913 deaths per 100,000 people.

Long-term trends

• The number of deaths registered in England and Wales has fallen since 2020 but is still slightly higher than 30 years ago (551,780 deaths in 1994).

• The ASMR was the lowest since our time series began in 1994.

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease continued to be the leading cause of death in 2025, accounting for 12.7% of all registered deaths (72,272 registrations).

Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease has been the leading cause of death since 2022.

These leading causes, and their ordering, were the same in both England and Wales.

Figure 2: Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease continued to be the leading cause of death in 2025

Death registrations by top six leading causes (accounting for 42% of total deaths), England and Wales, 2025

However, there were differences by sex. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was the leading cause of death for females in 2025, accounting for 16.5% of deaths, compared with 9.1% of deaths among males.

Among males, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death, accounting for 12.2% of deaths registered in 2025.

These trends are in line with previous years.

About causes of death

In our statistics, we use groups of causes that are more useful than comparing every condition individually. You can learn more about cause of death coding in our User guide to mortality statistics.

There were 291,364 male deaths registered, and 279,624 female deaths registered in 2025. Deaths of males were 0.6% higher in 2025 than in 2024, while female deaths were 0.3% higher.

Historically, there have been more female deaths each year than males, but this trend has reversed since 2020.

The age-standardised mortality rate for males was 1,073 deaths registered per 100,000 males, and 781 deaths registered per 100,000 females in 2025. For both sexes, this is a decrease compared with 2024, and the lowest rates since our time series began in 1994.

There were 534,020 deaths registered in England in 2025, and 35,767 deaths registered in Wales.

Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) in Wales, at 1,010 per 100,000 people, continued to exceed those in England, at 905 per 100,000 people.

In every English region, the ASMRs decreased compared with 2024. The North East remained the English region with the highest ASMR, at 1,019 per 100,000 people.

The region with the lowest ASMR was London, at 811 per 100,000 people.

Figure 4: The North East remained the English region with the highest age-standardised mortality rate in 2025

Age-standardised mortality rates by local authority, England and Wales, 2025

Notes:

1. Based on deaths registered in each calendar year.
2. Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) are standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population.

The English local authorities with the highest ASMRs were:

• Blackpool (1,253 per 100,000 people)

• Kingston upon Hull (1,190 per 100,000)

• Salford (1,182 per 100,000)

The English local authorities with the lowest ASMRs were:

• The City of London (481 per 100,000 people), but estimates may be unreliable because of small populations and death counts

• Kensington and Chelsea (623 per 100,000 people)

• Richmond upon Thames (664 per 100,000 people)

Figure 5: Blackpool and City of London were the English local authorities with the highest and lowest age-standardised mortality rate in 2025, respectively

Age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR), local authorities in England, 2025

The Welsh local authorities with the highest ASMRs were: 

• Merthyr Tydfil (1,242 per 100,000 people) 

• Blaenau Gwent (1,204 per 100,000 people) 

• Rhondda Cynon Taf (1,157 per 100,000 people) 

The Welsh local authorities with the lowest ASMRs were: 

• Monmouthshire (800 per 100,000 people) 

• Powys (859 per 100,000 people) 

• Ceredigion (867 per 100,000 people)

Figure 6: Merthyr Tydfil and Monmouthshire were the Welsh local authorities with the highest and lowest age-standardised mortality rate in 2025, respectively

Age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR), local authorities in Wales, 2025

Figure 7: Explore mortality rates by area

Age-standardised mortality rates by local authority, England and Wales, 2025

Notes:

1. Based on deaths registered in the calendar year. 
2. Figures exclude deaths of non-residents. 
3. Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) are standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population.

Find ASMRs broken down by sex and by local authority in our Deaths registered in England and Wales dataset.

There are two different measures we can use to count deaths in a given time period: death registrations, and death occurrences.

A death cannot be included in our statistics until it is registered. And we can either count these deaths based on the date of registration, or the date the death occurred. 

Most deaths are not registered on the same day that they occur, and some types of death (such as suicides, which require an inquest before they can be registered) see long delays between the date that they occurred and the date they are registered.

We have always presented death registrations in our mortality publications, as these figures do not change retrospectively: the number of deaths registered on a given day will remain the same.

Conversely, the number of deaths that occur on a given day could change even years into the future, as more events are registered after long delays.

However, presenting death registrations also means that not all deaths registered in a given year occurred in that year, which has implications for how users interpret our statistics. For example, 91.9% of deaths registered in 2025 also occurred that year; 7.3% occurred in 2024, and the remaining 0.8% occurred in 2023 or earlier.

After consulting with users of our statistics, we are presenting more occurrence-based figures, with a view to broadening this offer in the future. The figures for 2024 include provisional death registration data for 2026.

• 567,608 deaths occurred in 2024, and were registered by the end of March 2026.

• 571,010 deaths occurred in 2023, and were registered by the end of March 2025.

• 589,293 deaths occurred in 2022, and were registered by the end of March 2024.

In future releases in this series, we will use improved statistical methods to produce death occurrence estimates, which will account for long registration delays for some deaths, and allow for reliable comparisons between years.

For more information on death occurrences, you can explore statistics on deaths by year of occurrence in our Impact of registration delays on mortality statistics dataset. There is also more information on the death registration process in our User guide to mortality statistics. 

Age-standardised mortality rate

In this article, age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) refers to a weighted average of the age-specific mortality rates per 100,000 people (aged 10 years and over) and standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population. ASMRs allow for differences in the age structure of populations and for valid comparisons to be made between geographic areas, between sexes, and over time.

Coronavirus

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines coronaviruses as "a large family of viruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)". Between 2001 and 2018, there were 12 deaths in England and Wales because of a coronavirus infection, with a further 13 deaths mentioning the virus as a contributory factor on the death certificate.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) refers to the "coronavirus disease 2019" and is a disease that can affect the lungs and airways. It is caused by a type of coronavirus. Further information is available from the World Health Organization web page.

Registration delay

Mortality statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration, which is a legal requirement. According to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953, a death should be registered within five days unless it is referred to a coroner for investigation. Mortality statistics for a given time period can be based on occurrence (death date) or registration (registration date); registration delay is the difference between date of occurrence and date of registration.

Statistical significance

Whether a difference between estimates is because of a true change rather than because of chance or the variable nature of sampling.

Underlying cause of death

Defined by the World Health Organization as "the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury", in accordance with the rules of the International Classification of Diseases.

Other statistics producers also publish statistics on deaths. We have labelled them as highly, broadly and not comparable with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics. This is to understand if you can compare or combine them with ONS statistics.

Read why these statistics are highly, broadly or not comparable with ONS statistics in our Mortality statistics in England and Wales quality and methodology information.

Data on deaths from:

• National Records of Scotland (NRS) are highly comparable with our data

• Northern Ireland Research and Statistics Agency (NISRA) are highly comparable with our data

About the statistics

Mortality statistics in England and Wales QMI
Methodology | Released 10 October 2024
Quality and methodology information for mortality statistics in England and Wales, detailing the strengths and limitations of the data, methods used, and data uses and users.

User guide to mortality statistics
Methodology | Updated 9 October 2025
Supporting information for mortality statistics, which present figures on deaths registered in England and Wales in a specific week, month, quarter or year.

About the data

Death certification reform, England and Wales: 2025
Article | Released 25 September 2026
Analysis of death registrations since death certification reform, including time taken to register death and cause of death.

Statistical designation

The Office for Statistics Regulation independently reviewed these accredited official statistics in February 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".