Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the Vital Statistics for England and Wales data is to record the numbers of conceptions, live births, stillbirths, deaths and causes of death for persons in England and Wales, by gender and age. Data are available at local authority, health authority and ward level. Individual studies in the series record various parts of these data. Changes have been made over time to the way in which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects vital statistics data, resulting in some variation in the content of later studies in the series. Further information may be found in the Key Population and Vital Statistics reports available from the ONS web site.

During 2006, Sam Smith and colleagues at ESDS Government carried out work on various studies in the series prior to 2002, to improve the data format. The resulting files have been redeposited at the UKDA. More information is available in the documentation for the studies concerned.


SN:4817 includes annual summary figures for 2002 for each local authority in England and Wales on populations, births and deaths; fertility and mortality rates; comparative numbers and rates for the region and England and Wales.

Main Topics:

The data in the tables include all deaths registered in 2002. The 2001 mid-year population estimates are used in the 2002 VS1 table.
Births data are defined by mother's area of usual residence. Deaths data are defined by usual residence of the deceased as stated at death registration.
Births and deaths where the address of usual residence was outside England and Wales have been included in the 'England, Wales and Elsewhere' aggregate, but excluded from the figures given for individual health and local authorities.