United Kingdom
Accidental deaths
Key points
- Accidental deaths amongst the under-16s have almost halved over the last decade, from 500 in 1997 to 300 in 2007.
- Children from manual backgrounds remain somewhat more likely to die in accidents than other children. As with infant deaths, therefore, there is a marked difference by social class and, while the numbers are coming down for all, the difference remains the same.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: By population group
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Why this indicator was originally chosen
Accidents are the commonest cause of hospital admission for children aged 5-16 years. Jarvis, S., Towner, E. and Walsh, S., in Botting B (ed) The health of our children, 1995, page 95. They are also by far the biggest single cause of childhood deaths, causing nearly one half of all deaths for 1-19 year olds. The health of children in Wales, The Welsh Office, 1997, page 49. Furthermore, accidental deaths remain an area of marked differences between the social class groups.
Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the annual number of deaths due to external causes among those under 16. The data relates to Great Britain.
'Accidental deaths' encompasses all forms of accidental death, including traffic accidents, poisoning, falls and drowning as well as suicides and homicides (ICD-10 codes V01-X59). The data is based on year of registration rather than year of occurrence.
The second graph shows the relative likelihood of such deaths split by social classes I to IIINM and IIIM to V according to the social class of the father (in most cases the social class of the mother is not known). The data in this graph relates to England and Wales. 2001 is the latest year for which such data is available.
The actual data upon which the second graph is based is the number of deaths by social class of father. To turn these absolute figures into rates requires some assumptions to be made about the number of children in each social class. It has been assumed that 44% of children aged 0-15 are from social classes I-IIINM and the other 56% are from social classes IIIM-V. These proportions have been chosen as they are the estimated proportions of births by social class in the early 1990s (based on ONS childhood, infant and perinatal mortality statistics). These proportions have then been applied to the ONS population estimates for the number of children aged 0-15 in each year to derive the estimated rates.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. An important qualification to the split by social class is that around a third of such deaths in England and Wales are unclassified by social class, due either to a lack of information or because no socio-economic class can be attributed.
External links
- See the 2001 Unicef report entitled A league table of child deaths by injury in rich nations.
- See the Sure Start site.
Relevant 2007 Public Service Agreements
Overall aim: Improve children and young people's safety
Lead department
Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Official national targets
None.
Other indicators of progress
Children and young people who have experienced bullying.
Initial assessments for children's social care carried out within 7 days of referral.
Hospital admissions caused by unintentional and deliberate injuries to children and young people.
Preventable child deaths as recorded through child death review panel processes.
Relevant government policies
The numbers
Graph 1
| Total number of accidents | |
|---|---|
| 1995 | 545 |
| 1996 | 519 |
| 1997 | 518 |
| 1998 | 468 |
| 1999 | 472 |
| 2000 | 413 |
| 2001 | 389 |
| 2002 | 375 |
| 2003 | 369 |
| 2004 | 326 |
| 2005 | 318 |
| 2006 | 322 |
| 2007 | 287 |
Graph 2
| Number of accidents per 100,000 children aged under 16 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Social class I to IIINM | Social class IIIM to V | Total |
| 1993 | 3.5 | 6.4 | 5.1 |
| 1994 | 4.0 | 5.2 | 4.6 |
| 1995 | 3.4 | 5.3 | 4.5 |
| 1996 | 3.5 | 4.9 | 4.3 |
| 1997 | 3.1 | 4.6 | 4.0 |
| 1998 | 2.5 | 4.3 | 3.5 |
| 1999 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| 2000 | 2.8 | 3.4 | 3.2 |
| 2001 | 2.6 | 3.6 | 3.1 |