1 Introduction

The UK Biobank receives death notifications on a regular basis through linkage to national death registries. In this report we present summary statistics on the most common causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort.

  • The main cause of death for each participant is identified by the ICD10 code. To align with researcher interests we present summary statistics for grouped ICD10 codes (see Appendix 1). Please visit UKBiobank Showcase website to see numbers of deaths for each unique ICD10 code.

  • This report includes complete follow-up up to the current UK Biobank censoring date for death registry data.

  • This document was created on 05 April 2024.

  • Summary figures of fewer than five participants have been anonymised, per UK Biobank’s guidance on reporting for uncommon and geographical variables. Please refer to the Useful Links section of this page for more information.


2 Number of deaths

Since recruitment, 50675 UK Biobank participants have died, with a mean age at death of 71.7 years. Men constitute 59% of deaths but are on average 2 months older than women when they die.

Sex No.  Percent Mean Age at Death
F 20990 41 71.6
M 29685 59 71.8


3 Top 20 causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort

The main cause of death for each participant is identified by the ICD10 code. In this analysis we do not consider deaths due to benign cancers.


Figure 1: The 20 most common main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort



3.1 Top 20 main causes of death by sex within the UKB cohort

Figure 2: The 20 most common main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort by sex



3.2 Top 20 main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort - breakdown by age at death

Table 1: The 20 most common main causes of death within the UKB cohort, broken down by age at death
GroupedCause <50 years 50 - 60 years 60 - 70 years 70+ years Total
Ischemic heart disease 37 402 1619 3356 5414
Lung cancer 22 264 1345 2418 4049
Dementia 0 10 196 2652 2858
Cerebrovascular disease 6 116 487 1693 2302
Colorectal cancer 18 254 694 1330 2296
Pancreatic cancer 9 131 558 1104 1802
Breast cancer 58 323 647 758 1786
COVID19 0 51 220 1259 1530
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease <5 44 344 1101 1493
Prostate cancer <5 38 346 1080 1465
Injury and other external causes 71 247 377 595 1290
Oesophageal cancer 6 90 398 652 1146
Brain cancer 22 130 409 466 1027
Lymphoma 7 58 245 632 942
Parkinson and similar 0 7 81 819 907
Interstitial pulmonary diseases <5 19 179 705 905
Other diseases of the digestive system 5 72 211 534 822
Liver cancer <5 67 256 495 820
Ovarian cancer 10 88 286 433 817
Pneumonia <5 46 183 555 788
Top 20 Causes Total 284 2457 9081 22637 34459
Other Causes Total 196 1258 3915 9183 14552



3.3 Top 20 main causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort - breakdown by year of death

Table 2: The 20 most main common causes of death within the UK Biobank cohort, broken down by year of death
GroupedCause 2006 - 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Total
Ischemic heart disease 386 204 217 254 261 302 338 403 383 390 474 591 639 564 8 5414
Lung cancer 277 190 234 254 263 272 259 324 284 326 321 323 388 331 <5 4049
Dementia 5 9 21 41 38 65 118 155 227 268 349 429 534 597 <5 2858
Cerebrovascular disease 95 55 76 85 125 100 139 132 171 203 242 252 306 317 <5 2302
Colorectal cancer 132 122 119 117 147 144 165 156 147 191 222 199 187 245 <5 2296
Pancreatic cancer 97 59 88 84 99 117 118 142 151 144 161 192 180 167 <5 1802
Breast cancer 170 114 96 122 117 108 127 117 121 126 161 129 130 147 <5 1786
COVID19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 699 558 179 94 0 1530
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 46 30 42 46 60 80 96 118 128 167 122 158 210 190 0 1493
Prostate cancer 64 60 52 67 92 94 94 117 110 129 124 134 168 159 <5 1465
Injury and other external causes 116 64 74 81 86 100 100 77 122 61 73 94 152 89 <5 1290
Oesophageal cancer 74 44 58 59 70 74 72 74 106 86 93 111 126 99 0 1146
Brain cancer 79 55 60 70 56 81 74 62 84 93 74 67 97 75 0 1027
Lymphoma 51 38 46 40 65 72 57 61 63 71 77 90 110 101 0 942
Parkinson and similar <5 <5 5 11 12 22 45 55 77 107 115 134 147 169 <5 907
Interstitial pulmonary diseases 23 19 30 42 49 38 63 73 62 86 84 94 116 126 0 905
Other diseases of the digestive system 44 22 28 31 48 40 60 53 51 61 88 84 121 91 0 822
Liver cancer 39 35 35 40 51 58 51 69 56 68 75 90 77 76 0 820
Ovarian cancer 56 43 40 55 46 56 57 59 60 64 83 62 77 59 0 817
Pneumonia 29 11 24 26 34 60 57 50 89 84 66 62 102 93 <5 788
Top 20 Causes Total 1785 1178 1345 1525 1719 1883 2090 2297 2492 2725 3703 3853 4046 3789 29 34459
Other Causes Total 780 522 540 718 784 856 962 1036 1096 1193 1299 1453 1640 1661 12 14552




#Appendix 1: ICD10 Codes used to group main causes of death in this analysis.
GroupedCause ICD10 Codes
Oesophageal cancer C15
Colorectal cancer C18, C19, C20
Liver cancer C22
Pancreatic cancer C25
Lung cancer C33, C34
Breast cancer C50
Ovarian cancer C56
Prostate cancer C61
Brain cancer C71
Lymphoma C81, C82, C83, C84, C85, C86, C88
Dementia F01, F03, F05, G30, G31
Parkinson and similar G20, G21, G23, G24, G25
Ischemic heart disease I20, I21, I24, I25
Cerebrovascular disease I60, I61, I62, I63, I64, I67, I69
Pneumonia J12, J13, J15, J18
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease J43, J44
Interstitial pulmonary diseases J80, J81, J82, J84
Other diseases of the digestive system K31, K61, K62, K63, K71, K72, K74, K75, K76, K80, K81, K82, K83, K85, K86, K90, K92
COVID19 U07
Injury and other external causes V02, V03, V04, V05, V09, V13, V14, V17, V18, V19, V20, V23, V27, V28, V29, V40, V42, V43, V44, V47, V48, V49, V80, V89, V92, V93, V95, V96, V97, W00, W01, W05, W06, W07, W08, W10, W11, W13, W15, W17, W19, W20, W22, W26, W40, W54, W55, W65, W67, W69, W70, W74, W76, W78, W79, W80, W84, W87, W94, X00, X04, X08, X09, X11, X16, X23, X31, X40, X41, X42, X44, X45, X47, X49, X59, X60, X61, X62, X63, X64, X67, X69, X70, X71, X73, X74, X76, X78, X80, X81, X83, X84, X99, Y10, Y11, Y12, Y13, Y14, Y17, Y20, Y21, Y28, Y29, Y30, Y31, Y34, Y40, Y44, Y57, Y60, Y65, Y83, Y84, Y85, Y86, Y87, Y88