Death rate falls to lowest ever in England and Wales
You can look at the interesting map associated with this story which confirms people live longer in rural England. However is that because they are more affluent when they choose to move there rather than because of anything specific in the make up of the countryside? We also all know when the rurally dispersed elderly get past 80 they put a big strain on service provision. More work needs to be done about this whole agenda.
“The number of live births to mothers aged 40 and over has more than quadrupled from 6,860 in 1981 to 29,350 in 2011.”
The north east had a 12% higher mortality rate than the rest of the country using the standardised mortality ratio (SMR) calculation.
In contrast, mortality levels were lowest in London and the south east, where they were 7% below the national level.
Manchester was the local authority with the highest SMR, at 32% above the national, while South Cambridgeshire’s was 26% below.
In Wales, Blaenau Gwent had the highest SMR, 29% above the national level, while Monmouthshire had the lowest, at 10% below.
The ONS said the variations were down to socio-economic factors, income differences and health behaviour.
The West Midlands had the highest regional infant mortality rate, with 6.0 deaths per thousand live births, and the south east had the lowest, with 3.5 deaths per thousand live births.
Wales had an infant mortality rate of 3.9 deaths per thousand live births.
The ONS said differences could be explained by the mother’s country of birth, socio-economic status and age.
It calculated the average age of a mother as 29.7 years – unchanged on previous figures.