Mortality in the UK

In the United Kingdom, there has been a long-term downward trend in both the number of deaths and the crude death rate (the number of deaths per thousand people).

However, since 2011, both the number of deaths and the crude death rate have increased. The number of deaths has increased more than the crude death rate, as some of the increase in the number of deaths was due to population growth.

Provisional figures on the number of weekly deaths indicate that winter mortality was higher than usual in early 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) fell overall between 2001 and 2017, but there was a slowdown in the rate of improvement in the early 2010s.

Improvements to life expectancy have slowed in recent years for both men and women, but estimates of life expectancy have not fallen compared with earlier periods.

Among the countries and regions of the UK, in the period 2015-17 life expectancy at birth and at age 65 was highest for women in London and for men in the South East. It was lowest for both women and men in Scotland.

At the local level, life expectancy at birth was highest for women living in Camden (86.5) and for men living in Hart (83.3). It was lowest for both men and women living in Glasgow City (78.8 and 73.3 respectively).

Data showing trends in life expectancy by local authority can be downloaded from the Office for National Statistics in their dataset on Life expectancy at birth and at age 65 by local areas.