Mortality rates in the UK from 1990 to 2020

FOI Ref: ​FOI/2021/3075

You asked

​​Would it be possible to get a table of the yearly death rates per year in the U.K since 1990 up until the end of December 2020 ?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry requesting mortality rates in the United Kingdom from 1990 to 2020.

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. Should you wish to contact them for any further information, please email them at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

In collaboration with NRS and NISRA, we have produced headline mortality data for the United Kingdom for 1990 to 2019. This can be accessed in the following publication, Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages, and has been pasted below for your information.

2020 data

We hold the following analysis for England and Wales for 2020 in our Deaths registered in England and Wales publication.

Data for the 2020 in the whole of the United Kingdom will be published in December 2021. As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.

This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.

For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.