FOI reference: FOI-2026-3689
You asked
I am writing to make a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for data regarding deaths caused by Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAAs).
Specifically, please provide the following information for the most recent calendar or financial years available (ideally broken down year-by-year for the past 5 years, e.g., 2021–2025):
The total number of registered deaths in England where an Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) was recorded as the underlying cause, or a significant contributory factor.
The subset of these deaths specifically concerning all adults (both men & women) aged under 65, broken down by gender.
If possible, a further breakdown of these cases by specific age brackets (e.g., under 50, 50–54, 55–59, 60–64), gender, and by NHS region / Integrated Care Board (ICB) if available within the cost limit.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We publish information on annual deaths where abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) was the underlying cause of death by age group and region, which is available from our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice for years 2013 to 2024.
This dataset provides an answer to part of your first and second questions. However, please note the dataset does not contain information about cases when AAA was a significant contributory factor to the death, nor does it have this information by NHS region or Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Our mortality data come from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, 10th 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:
the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
The ICD-10 cause codes for AAAs are:
I71.3: Abdominal aortic aneurysm, ruptured
I71.4: Abdominal aortic aneurysm, without mention of rupture
Instructions for use of the NOMIS service:
select geography (England and Wales, regional, or by local authority)
select age (all ages, or five-year age bands)
select gender (total, or male or female)
select rates (all births, rates, or percentage of population, for example)
select the ICD10 code for the underlying cause of death
select format (Excel or CSV, for example)
Further analysis showing the number of deaths registered between 2021 and 2025 where an AAA was recorded as either the underlying cause of death or was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, broken down by sex and ICB in England can be obtained via our bespoke services route. Please note though that because of disclosure risks, we are unlikely to be able to disclose age-group breakdowns at this geographic level.
This bespoke tabulation, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales, is available to order, subject to legal frameworks, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there will be a charge for this work, which would be subject to our charging policy.
As this information is reasonably accessible via another route, even if only accessible on payment, Section 21(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies.