FOI reference: FOI-2025-2896
You asked
I would like the categorised cause of death statistics for mentally unwell people in England and Wales, recorded between 2014 and 2024, including age of death.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our mortality statistics are based on information collected during the death registration process. This includes details from both the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) and the official registration record. Information about the deceased's mental state is not recorded unless it directly contributed to the cause of death.
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 World Health Organisation (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
If the deceased died due to a mental or behavioural disorder, the underlying cause would reflect that. If the death involved a mental or behavioural disorder it is possible that it would be mentioned on the death certificate.
We have published the number of deaths due to all mental or behavioural disorders for deaths registered in England and Wales for deaths registered between 2021 and 2024. Please see our Deaths Summary Statistics release.
You can obtain the number of deaths due to specific mental or behavioural disorders from our NOMIS data service. Data are available in NOMIS from 2013 to 2023. Data for deaths registered in 2024 will be available later this year.
Instructions for use of this 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 format (Excel or CSV, for example)
You can find the codes for the causes you are interested in chapter V in the WHO ICD-10 lookup.
If you are interested in deaths involving specific mental or behavioural disorders that are not available via the aforementioned sources, we may be able to produce a custom output via our bespoke services route to meet your specifications. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order, subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs. Please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk for more information.