In 2006 there were 502,599 deaths registered in England and Wales, comprising 240,889 male deaths and 261,710 female deaths. Provisional age-standardised death rates for males and females were 7,111 and 4,997 deaths per million population, respectively. This represents a fall on the 2005 rates of 3.4 per cent for males and 3.7 per cent for females.
Over the course of the 20th century, there were fairly steady falls in these rates. The rate for males fell from 25,829 in 1901 to 8,477 in 2000. The rate for females fell from 21,705 to 5,679 over the same period. These trends have continued in the 21st century.
Despite the trend, there have been substantial year on year fluctuations in death rates mainly due to influenza epidemics and unusually cold winters. Annual variations were particularly notable during the first half of the century. The largest annual increase occurred in 1918, when it was estimated that the influenza epidemic that spanned 1918-1919 killed around 200,000 people in England and Wales. The total number of deaths in 1918 was 611,900, with age standardised death rates of 29,086 for males and 20,026 for females.
After the influenza epidemic of 1951, annual fluctuations became substantially smaller. The decline in male mortality was slower during the following 25 years than in the rest of the century, resulting in a widening of the gap between male and female rates over this period. This gap has subsequently been decreasing to reach its narrowest point in 2006.
At the beginning of the 20th century over half of all deaths occurred under age 45. Infant mortality (at ages under one year) accounted for 25 per cent of deaths in 1901, but had fallen to 4 per cent of deaths by the middle of the century and is now less than 1 per cent. Childhood mortality has also declined, while decreases in the rates for young adults (15-44) were mainly seen in the first half of the century. In 2006, 4 per cent of deaths occurred at ages under 45.
Deaths at age 75 and over comprised only 12 per cent of all deaths at the beginning of the last century. They rose to 39 per cent in 1951 and 66 per cent in 2006.
Fonte: Death registrations: UK Office for National Statistics
