Death Statistics in the UK 2026
Death statistics in the United Kingdom in 2026 tell a story of long-term progress interrupted by COVID-19 and now resuming, against a backdrop of rising chronic disease burden and persistent inequality in life expectancy. According to the ONS, there were 570,988 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2025 — an increase of just 0.4% from 568,613 in 2024, and 6.1% lower than the 2020 pandemic peak. The provisional ASMR for 2025 was 914.6 deaths per 100,000 — the lowest in the ONS data series since 1994. Both England (906.9) and Wales (1,008.7) recorded their lowest-ever ASMRs, confirming that despite rising raw death numbers from a growing, ageing population, the underlying mortality risk per person continues to fall. The UK crude death rate in 2025 was 9.51 per 1,000 — marginally up from 9.49 in 2024 — while the 2024 ASMR of 931 per 100,000 was already well below the 2020 pandemic peak of 1,066 per 100,000 (Nuffield Trust analysis).
The cause-of-death picture in England in 2025 is well-established: cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, respiratory disease, and liver disease account for 77% of all England deaths in 2025 (OHID Mortality Profile, May 2026). For most categories, mortality rates in 2025 were significantly lower than in 2024 and pre-pandemic 2019 — genuine long-term progress. The exception is liver disease, where the male rate remained 7% higher than 2019 levels, directly reflecting the increased alcohol consumption of the COVID-19 period. Alcohol-specific mortality — deaths wholly attributable to alcohol — rose 39% between 2019 and 2023, from 10.8 to 15.0 per 100,000, one of the sharpest single-cause deteriorations since the pandemic began.
Interesting Facts: Death Statistics in the UK 2026
| Fact | Figure |
|---|---|
| Deaths registered in England and Wales (2025, ONS) | 570,988 |
| Deaths registered in England and Wales (2024, ONS) | 568,613 |
| Year-on-year change (2024 to 2025) | +0.4% |
| Reduction vs 2020 pandemic peak | −6.1% |
| Provisional ASMR England and Wales (2025) | 914.6 per 100,000 — lowest since 1994 |
| England ASMR (2025) | 906.9 per 100,000 — lowest ever in time series |
| Wales ASMR (2025) | 1,008.7 per 100,000 — lowest ever in time series |
| UK crude death rate (2025) | 9.51 per 1,000 population |
| UK crude death rate (2024) | 9.49 per 1,000 population |
| Age-standardised mortality rate England and Wales (2024) | 931 per 100,000 |
| Mortality rate England and Wales — peak 2020 (COVID) | 1,066 per 100,000 |
| UK life expectancy at birth — males (2022–2024, ONS) | 79.1 years |
| UK life expectancy at birth — females (2022–2024, ONS) | 83.0 years |
| Top 5 causes as % of England deaths (2025, OHID) | 77% (cancer, CVD, dementia, respiratory, liver) |
| Male CVD mortality decline (2001–2024, OHID) | −51% |
| Female CVD mortality decline (2001–2024, OHID) | −55% |
| Cancer mortality decline — male vs 2019 | −8% (2025 vs 2019) |
| Cancer mortality decline — female vs 2019 | −8% (2025 vs 2019) |
| Respiratory mortality decline — male vs 2019 | −11% |
| Respiratory mortality decline — female vs 2019 | −13% |
| Alcohol-specific mortality increase (2019–2023) | +39% (10.8 to 15.0 per 100,000) |
| Liver disease male mortality vs 2019 (2025) | +7% above pre-pandemic level |
| UK centenarians (2024, ONS) | 16,600 |
| People aged 90+ in UK (2024, ONS) | 625,000 |
| Increase in UK 90+ population since 2004 | +53.7% |
| Male-to-female mortality ratio (2024) | 1.4x (males higher; down from 1.5x in 1994) |
| Weekly deaths, week ending 20 June 2025 | 10,412 |
| Scotland’s ASMR vs England (2025) | Higher — Scotland consistently records higher mortality |
Source: ONS, Deaths registered in England and Wales 2024 (October 2025); ONS, Death registration summary statistics England and Wales 2024 (May 2025); ONS provisional 2025 data — Deaths page (June 2026); OHID Mortality Profile statistical commentary May 2026 (gov.uk); OHID Mortality Profile statistical commentary December 2025 (gov.uk); ONS National life tables UK 2022 to 2024 (December 2025); ONS Estimates of the very old 2002 to 2024 (October 2025); Nuffield Trust — Mortality Rates; Macrotrends UK death rate historical data
The lowest age-standardised mortality rate since 1994 recorded in 2025 is not a statement about COVID-19 having passed — it is a statement about how far the UK’s mortality performance has improved over three decades, with the post-pandemic recovery now pulling rates below even the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline for most major causes. When the ONS’s data series began in 1994, the all-cause ASMR in England and Wales stood at around 1,392 per 100,000 — compared to 914.6 in 2025. That is a reduction of roughly 34% in underlying mortality risk over 31 years, driven by the transformation of cardiovascular disease, cancer, and infectious disease management in the NHS.
The 625,000 people aged 90 and over in the UK in 2024 — up 53.7% since 2004 — and the 16,600 centenarians are both products of the same long-term mortality improvement. The ONS specifically attributes these changes to “improvements in life expectancy and historic birth patterns” — the baby boom cohorts from the post-WWII period reaching very old age in better health than their predecessors. Life expectancy at age 65 was higher in 2022–2024 than in the pre-pandemic period 2017–2019 across all UK nations except for Northern Ireland females, though the ONS notes that COVID-19 pandemic impacts still partly remain in the 2022–2024 estimates, particularly for males.
Leading Causes of Death in the UK 2025–2026
Leading Causes of Death — England (OHID / ONS 2025 data, published May 2026)
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Cancer |████████████████████████████████████████████████████| ~28% of deaths (England)
Cardiovascular |████████████████████████████████████████████████ | ~24% of deaths
Dementia/Alzheimer's|█████████████████████████████████████████████████ | Rising — major cause
Respiratory |████████████████████████████████████████ | ~13% of deaths
Liver disease |██████████████ | Rising trend post-COVID
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Cancer + CVD + Dementia + Respiratory + Liver = 77% of England deaths (OHID 2025)
Male CVD rate fell 51% since 2001 | Female CVD rate fell 55% since 2001
Source: OHID Mortality Profile May 2026; ONS Deaths 2024 bulletin Oct 2025
| Cause of Death | Key Data (2025, England) | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| Cancer (all types) | Leading cause — ~28% of deaths | −8% vs 2019 (age-standardised) |
| Cardiovascular disease (CVD) | ~24% of deaths | −51% male / −55% female since 2001 |
| Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease | Major cause — rising share | Stable 2024/25; 2024 rates significantly lower than 2019 |
| Respiratory disease | ~13% of deaths | −11% male / −13% female vs 2019 |
| Liver disease | Increasing trend | Male rate +7% above pre-pandemic 2019 |
| COVID-19 | Lower since 2022 peak | Still present but much diminished contribution |
| Drug poisoning deaths | Data to 2024 published | Long-term concern — separate ONS publication |
| Alcohol-specific deaths (2023) | 15.0 per 100,000 | +39% vs 2019 (10.8) |
| Alcohol-related deaths (broader measure) | Higher than alcohol-specific | Highest recorded pre-2025 |
Source: OHID Mortality Profile statistical commentary May 2026 (gov.uk, updated with 2025 provisional data); OHID Mortality Profile December 2025 (CVD long-term trend 2001–2024); ONS Deaths registered in England and Wales 2024 (October 2025)
<cite index=”16-1″>Cancer mortality rates have followed a long-term downward trend in England, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, with this decrease continuing in 2025. Rates fell for both sexes, and compared with pre-pandemic rates in 2019, the cancer mortality rate in 2025 was 8% lower for both sexes.</cite> This is one of the most significant public health achievements of recent decades — a disease that was responsible for roughly one in four deaths in England but whose age-standardised rate has been cut by nearly a third since 2001 through earlier detection, improved treatments including targeted therapies and immunotherapy, and population-level screening programmes.
<cite index=”11-1″>Between 2001 and 2024, the male mortality rate from cardiovascular disease fell by 51%, while the female rate fell by 55%.</cite> That five-decade reduction — driven by statins, antihypertensives, improved cardiac surgery, and falling smoking rates — is the dominant story of 20th and early 21st century UK mortality improvement. Yet the <cite index=”11-1″>decrease in cardiovascular disease rates slowed in the decade before 2020, and there were increases in some years since 2019</cite>, suggesting the pace of progress on the UK’s second biggest killer has plateaued.
UK Life Expectancy Statistics in 2026
UK Life Expectancy at Birth — 2022 to 2024 Period (ONS, published December 2025)
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Males |████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 79.1 years
Females |████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████| 83.0 years
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Gap between male and female life expectancy: 3.9 years
Life expectancy at 65 — males: ~19.4 years additional life expectancy
Life expectancy at 65 — females: ~21.8 years additional life expectancy
Increase vs 2019-2021: +21 weeks males / +18 weeks females
Source: ONS National Life Tables UK 2022-2024, December 2025
| Life Expectancy Metric | Data (ONS 2022–2024 period) |
|---|---|
| UK male life expectancy at birth | 79.1 years |
| UK female life expectancy at birth | 83.0 years |
| Male life expectancy — increase vs 2019–2021 | +21 weeks |
| Female life expectancy — increase vs 2019–2021 | +18 weeks |
| Gap between male and female LE | 3.9 years (down from 6.0 years in 1980–1982) |
| Male-female gap in 1980–1982 | 6.0 years |
| Male-female gap in 2012–2014 | 3.7 years (narrowest recorded) |
| Life expectancy at 65 — males | ~19.4 years |
| Life expectancy at 65 — females | ~21.8 years |
| Northern Ireland — lowest female LE | Below 2017–2019 pre-pandemic levels |
| 10-year decade increase in LE (male) | Overall increase across the period |
| COVID-19 pandemic LE impact | Reduced 2020–2022; recovering |
| UK LE global ranking | Above OECD average |
| Healthy life expectancy at birth (UK males) | 63.1 years (2018–2020, ONS) |
| Healthy life expectancy at birth (UK females) | 63.9 years (2018–2020, ONS) |
Source: ONS — National Life Tables, United Kingdom: 2022 to 2024, published 10 December 2025; ONS — Estimates of the Very Old, including Centenarians, UK: 2002 to 2024, published 21 October 2025
<cite index=”19-1″>Life expectancy at birth for UK females was 83.0 years in 2022 to 2024, an increase of 18 weeks from 82.7 years in 2019 to 2021. Male life expectancy at birth was 79.1 years, an increase of 21 weeks from 78.7 years in 2019 to 2021. The gap between male and female life expectancy at birth fell from 6.0 years in 1980 to 1982 to 3.7 years in 2012 to 2014.</cite> The convergence of male and female life expectancy over the last four decades reflects two dominant forces: the dramatic fall in premature male mortality from cardiovascular disease and smoking-related illness, and the increase in female workforce participation that has reduced some of the protective lifestyle advantages women historically held. The current 3.9-year gap reflects a narrowing that has stalled somewhat since the 2012–2014 low point.
The healthy life expectancy gap is a different and arguably more important measure. While men and women live to 79.1 and 83.0 years respectively, the years spent in good health are considerably shorter — around 63 years for both sexes based on the most recent published estimates. This means the average UK resident can expect to spend roughly 16 to 20 years of their life in poor health or with a significant disability — a period that places substantial demands on NHS services, social care, and informal family caregiving. Closing that gap — extending not just the length of life but the proportion of life spent in good health — is the stated ambition of health policy in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but progress has been slow.
UK Mortality by Age and Sex in 2026
UK Age-Standardised Mortality Rates by Sex (Nuffield Trust / ONS 2024)
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Males |████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████| Higher rate — 1.4x female
Females |████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | Lower rate
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Gap in 1994: males 1.5x female rate | Gap in 2024: males 1.4x female rate
All-cause ASMR England and Wales 2024: 931 per 100,000
Male rate significantly above female rate in every age group
Under-75 death rate 2025 vs 2019: similar (not yet surpassed pre-pandemic improvement pace)
Source: ONS; Nuffield Trust Mortality Rates (2025)
| Age / Sex Mortality Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Male mortality rate vs female (2024) | 1.4x higher |
| Male mortality rate vs female (1994) | 1.5x higher (gap narrowing) |
| Deaths in England and Wales registered (2024) | 568,613 |
| Deaths lower in every English region (2024 vs 2023) | Yes — North East fell most (−3.2%) |
| Deaths — all English regions decline vs 2023 | Yes — Yorkshire and Humber smallest fall (−0.9%) |
| Under-75 death rates (2025 vs 2019) | Similar — not yet back below pre-pandemic level |
| Age group driving raw death number increase | Older age groups (population ageing) |
| ASMR trend since 2020 peak | Falling year-on-year (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025) |
| Scotland vs England mortality | Scotland consistently higher ASMR |
| Wales vs England mortality | Wales higher (1,008.7 vs 906.9 in 2025) |
| Deprivation impact | Significant — most deprived areas have substantially higher death rates |
| Life expectancy gap — most vs least deprived | 7–10 year gap in England |
Source: ONS, Death registration summary statistics England and Wales 2024 (May 2025); Nuffield Trust Mortality Rates (2024 data); OHID Mortality Profile May 2026 — provisional 2025 data with IMD 2025 deprivation analysis
<cite index=”20-1″>The mortality rate from all causes of death in England and Wales fell steadily between 1995 and 2011, from 1,392 deaths per 100,000 population to 979 deaths per 100,000 population. After that, progress slowed, reaching 937 deaths per 100,000 population in 2019. In 2020, mortality increased sharply to 1,066 per 100,000 population, reversing a 15-year trend of declining mortality rates.</cite> The pattern visible in that data is one that public health researchers had been warning about for years before the pandemic: the rate of mortality improvement in England and Wales began slowing after 2011, with austerity-era cuts to public services, NHS funding pressures, and stagnating improvements in cardiovascular mortality all contributing to a slowdown well before COVID-19 added the sharpest single spike in living memory.
<cite index=”13-1″>Deaths were lower in every English region in 2024 compared with 2023; the region with the largest decrease was the North East (3.2% lower) and the region with the smallest was Yorkshire and The Humber (0.9% lower).</cite> This broad regional improvement reflects the national post-pandemic recovery in mortality, but it does not eliminate the persistent gap between regions. The North East’s above-average improvement from a high base reflects both the volatility of smaller population statistics and the intensity of the COVID-19 impact on northern industrial regions during the pandemic peak, which created an elevated comparison baseline.
Alcohol and Drug Mortality in the UK 2026
Alcohol-Specific and Alcohol-Related Mortality — England (OHID, 2019–2024)
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Alcohol-specific mortality rate 2019 |████████████████ | 10.8 per 100,000
Alcohol-specific mortality rate 2020 |███████████████████ | Began rising
Alcohol-specific mortality rate 2023 |████████████████████████████ | 15.0 per 100,000 (+39%)
Highest rate in a local authority: Stoke-on-Trent |████████████████████████████████| 29.0 per 100,000
Lowest rate in a local authority: Redbridge |████ | 5.4 per 100,000
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5x difference between highest and lowest local authority rates
Liver disease male mortality: +7% above pre-pandemic 2019 (2025)
Source: OHID Mortality Profile December 2025; OHID Mortality Profile May 2026
| Alcohol and Drug Mortality Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| Alcohol-specific mortality rate (2019) | 10.8 per 100,000 |
| Alcohol-specific mortality rate (2023) | 15.0 per 100,000 |
| Increase (2019–2023) | +39% |
| Highest local authority alcohol-specific rate (2024) | Stoke-on-Trent: 29.0 per 100,000 |
| Lowest local authority alcohol-specific rate (2024) | Redbridge: 5.4 per 100,000 |
| Stoke vs Redbridge multiplier | 5.4x higher |
| Liver disease male mortality (2025 vs 2019) | +7% above pre-pandemic 2019 |
| Liver disease female mortality (2025 vs 2019) | Similar to 2019 |
| Drug poisoning deaths dataset | ONS — England and Wales, 1993 to 2024 |
| Drug poisoning data | Separate ONS bulletin — by substance, sex, age |
Source: OHID Mortality Profile statistical commentary December 2025 (gov.uk); OHID Mortality Profile statistical commentary May 2026 (gov.uk)
<cite index=”11-1″>The alcohol-specific mortality rate (deaths wholly due to alcohol) had remained relatively stable between 2006 and 2019, but it increased by 39% between 2019 (10.8 per 100,000) and 2023 (15.0 per 100,000).</cite> This surge is one of the most alarming trends in UK mortality data and sits in stark contrast to the general improvement in other major cause categories. The increase was concentrated in the COVID-19 period and its immediate aftermath — a combination of increased drinking during lockdowns, disrupted access to alcohol treatment services, and the delayed physiological consequences of elevated consumption manifesting in deaths from alcoholic liver disease, alcoholic cardiomyopathy, and acute alcoholic poisoning.
The geographic inequality in alcohol mortality — a 5.4-fold difference between Stoke-on-Trent and Redbridge — is not simply a reflection of different drinking cultures. It maps closely onto measures of deprivation, unemployment, social isolation, and mental health prevalence. <cite index=”11-1″>Stoke-on-Trent was the upper tier local authority with the highest alcohol-specific mortality rate in 2024 (29.0 per 100,000), over 5 times higher than Redbridge, the area with the lowest rate (5.4 per 100,000).</cite> Public health researchers consistently note that alcohol harm is not evenly distributed — it falls most heavily on the most deprived communities, where it combines with other mortality drivers including smoking, poor diet, and limited healthcare access to compress life expectancy significantly below the national average.
Scotland and Northern Ireland Death Statistics in 2026
UK Nations Mortality Comparison — 2022 to 2024 / 2025 (ONS)
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England ASMR (2025) |████████████████████████████████████| 906.9 per 100,000 (lowest in time series)
Wales ASMR (2025) |████████████████████████████████████████| 1,008.7 per 100,000 (lowest in time series)
Scotland (higher than England) |████████████████████████████████████████████| Consistently higher mortality rates
Northern Ireland |████████████████████████████████████████| Female LE below pre-pandemic 2017-2019 level
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Scotland life expectancy: Published separately — ABS 10 December 2025
Life expectancy at 65 — higher than 2017-2019 for all UK nations (except NI females)
Source: ONS National Life Tables UK 2022-2024 (December 2025); Scottish Government data
| UK Nations Metric | Data |
|---|---|
| England ASMR (2025) | 906.9 per 100,000 — lowest ever in time series |
| Wales ASMR (2025) | 1,008.7 per 100,000 — lowest ever in time series |
| Scotland mortality vs England | Consistently higher — “Scottish health penalty” well-documented |
| Northern Ireland — female LE at 65 | Still below pre-pandemic 2017–2019 levels |
| Scotland life expectancy report | Published December 10, 2025 (Scottish Government / NRS) |
| Life expectancy at 65 — all UK nations except NI females | Higher than pre-pandemic (2017–2019) |
| Difference between England and Wales ASMR | Wales approximately 11% higher |
| Scotland excess mortality post-2022 | Remains area of ongoing monitoring |
| Deprivation gap in life expectancy | Largest in Scotland — up to 13+ years gap in Glasgow |
Source: ONS National Life Tables United Kingdom 2022 to 2024, released December 10, 2025; Life expectancy in Scotland 2022 to 2024, published December 10, 2025
<cite index=”19-1″>Life expectancy at age 65 years by sex was higher for all UK nations (except for Northern Ireland females), compared with the last complete period before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2017 to 2019. None of the differences are greater than nine weeks.</cite> The Northern Ireland exception is a specific concern that reflects the combination of pandemic-era mortality and the territory’s particular social and health challenges. Scotland’s mortality statistics — published separately by the National Records of Scotland in December 2025 — continue to show the persistent “Scottish health penalty”: higher age-standardised death rates than England for most major cause categories, driven by the concentrated deprivation, alcohol harm, and drug mortality that have characterised Scotland’s health statistics for decades.
The difference between England’s ASMR of 906.9 and Wales’s 1,008.7 per 100,000 in 2025 — roughly 11% — reflects genuine structural differences in population health driven by Wales’s older age structure, higher deprivation prevalence, and historically lower investment in some health services. Both figures are the lowest their respective data series have recorded, confirming that the long-term trajectory across the entire UK remains downward — the question is how steep that trajectory will be going forward as the baby boom generation ages into its highest-risk decades, the NHS faces sustained capacity pressures, and the long-term consequences of pandemic-era health behaviour changes work through the mortality data.
Disclaimer: The data research report we present here is based on information found from various sources. We are not liable for any financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that may result from the use of the information herein. We acknowledge that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything that has been represented.
