Mortality in the UK and deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer's 1991 to 2021

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4088

You Asked

Please supply the following information:

• All cause deaths in the UK between 1991 - 2021.

• Number of deaths registered due to dementia and Alzheimer's between 1991 and 2021 in England and Wales.

Please explain why this dataset is showing 66.424 deaths for 2019, but according to this table, there have been 66.404 deaths due to dementia and Alzheimer's.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

All cause deaths in the UK 1991 - 2021

We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In collaboration with these organisations, we produce headline all-cause mortality statistics for the United Kingdom in our Vital Statistics bulletin, available via the following link: Vital Statistics in the UK. Data is available in this publication from 1887 to 2020.

2021 data for the UK will be published in December 2022. Therefore, should you wish to obtain the requested data for Scotland or Northern Ireland for 2021, please contact NRS and NISRA at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

All-cause mortality for 2021 is available for England and Wales as part of our Deaths Registered Series and features in the Vital Statistics publication. Data for 2021 will be published in July 2022, this is to allow the inclusion of late registrations which are deaths which have been referred for Coroner investigation.

We have produced provisional data for England and Wales in 2021 in our Monthly Mortality Analysis bulletin, however please be aware that these do not represent the finalised figures.

Annual UK mortality data from our Vital Statistics in the UK publication:

Dementia and Alzheimer's deaths in England and Wales 1991 - 2021 The following dataset, Dementia and Alzheimer's disease deaths including comorbidities in England and Wales, shows 66.424 deaths for 2019 as this includes non-residents. This is where the deceased have died in England or Wales, but are not residents of those countries.

The second dataset, Number of deaths involving or due to dementia and Alzheimer's disease registered in England and Wales 2015 to 2020, excludes non-residents.

This accounts for the difference between the two figures you have noticed.

Our NOMIS webservice will provide deaths due to Alzheimer's and Dementia from 2013 to 2020 in England and Wales. The ICD-10 codes used for dementia and Alzheimer's disease are:

•       F01: Vascular Dementia  

•       F03: Unspecified Dementia

•       G30: Alzheimer's Disease

To use the NOMIS Webservice, please following these instructions:

1. Select Geography -- Total mortality including non-residents, England, Wales or England and Wales excluding non-residents.
2. Select Age -- All ages or 5-year age bands.  
3. Select Gender -- Total or Male/Female  
4. Select rates -- All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.  
5. Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available or use codes noted above).  
6. Select format (Excel or CSV for example)

Mortality statistics - underlying cause, sex and age in England and Wales

Cause of death - F01 Vascular dementia

Cause of death - F03 Unspecified dementia

Cause of death - G30 Alzheimer's disease

For more historic data, our 21st century mortality Deaths registered in England and Wales provides deaths by ICD-10 code from 2001 to 2020 and our 20th Century Mortality Files provides deaths from 1901 to 2000.

Data for 2021 is still provisional and subject to change until July 2022. However, we can create a bespoke data request for you for this year. 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, where appropriate). Such enquiries can be made to the HALE Customer Services team on Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.