Northern Ireland
Premature death
Key points
- The rate of premature death in Northern Ireland has declined steadily up until 2003, from 235 deaths per 100,000 people in 1996 to 195 per 100,000 in 2003. There has, however, been no further decline since 2003.
- These rates equate to around 3,000 premature deaths each year (a number that has remained fairly steady throughout the period as the size of the underlying population has been growing). Both the rate, and the trend it has followed, are similar to those for Great Britain.
- Around quarter of these deaths are due to circulatory diseases, one third to cancers and one quarter to other internal causes. The remainder - some 15% - are due to external causes.
- There is great variation in the rate of premature death within Northern Ireland by social class. The rate for intermediate occupations is twice that for managerial and professional groups, the rate for manual and routine occupations is two and half times as high and the rate for those who have never worked or are long term unemployed is three times as high.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: By social class
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Definitions and data sources
This indicator looks at the rate of premature death, defined here as death before the age of 65. The main justification for including it is to show how far premature death rates differ by social class.
The first graph shows, over time, the number of deaths of people aged under 65 per 100,000 population, with the data standardised to a constant European age structure. For comparison purposes, the equivalent data for Great Britain is also shown.
The second graph shows the rate of deaths of people aged under 65 by social class. The data is not standardised by age. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for 2002 to 2006 (earlier data uses a different definition of social class).
In both graphs, the number of deaths is divided into four groups of cause, namely circulatory diseases (including heart disease), neoplasms/cancers, other internal causes (respiratory, digestive, etc) and external causes (accidents, suicides, assaults, etc).
The source for the Northern Ireland data in both graphs is the Registrar General with the data being obtained via the Department of Finance and Personnel. The source for the Great Britain data in the first graph is the General Register Office for Scotland and ONS for England and Wales.
Overall adequacy of this indicator: medium. All the data in the first graph is both factual and comparable but comes from different sources.
External links
See the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety's site on health inequalities.