FOI reference: FOI-2026-3756
You asked
- How many people have died in Britain between 55 to 67 years old?
- How many people are ill, therefore unable to work? - had to leave work due to ill health
- How many people are living longer (due to NHS treatment e.g. science and new technology) but are ill i.e. cancer, dementia etc.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Q1. We are responsible for the production of mortality statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales. Information pertaining to deaths registered in Scotland is produced by National Records Scotland. Table DT03 of their Deaths Time Series dataset provides the information you have requested for deaths registered in Scotland.
We have published the number of deaths registered in England and Wales for each month from January 1961 to December 2025 on our website. These figures are presented by sex and single year of age.
Q2. We publish estimates of economic inactivity by reason. Those who are economically inactive are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or are unable to start work in the next two weeks.
Data on economic inactivity (aged 16 to 64 years) by reason (seasonally adjusted) are official statistics and are published in table INAC01 SA.
In the latest available period (May-July 2026), there were an estimated 201,000 people who were economically inactive for the reason of being temporarily sick. This means they are out of work and not actively seeking work because of a short-term illness or injury, but who are not classified as chronically or long-term sick. In this same period, there were an estimated 2,780,000 economically inactive people for the reason of being long-term sick.
Q3. We do not hold information on how many people are ill and living longer due to health care interventions. Our Healthy Life Expectancy publication provides statistics on the number of years people are expected to spend in good health in the UK.
We have found this report by the Chief Medical Officer which looks at Health in an Ageing Society which provides information on morbidity rates by age group for the top 10 broad causes. We hope this will be helpful for you.