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 04 September 2025.

  • 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, 56570 UK Biobank participants have died, with a mean age at death of 72.3 years. Men constitute 58% of deaths but are on average 1 months older than women when they die.

Sex No.  Percent Mean Age at Death
F 23553 42 72.3
M 33017 58 72.4


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 37 418 1693 3813 5961
Lung cancer 22 270 1387 2659 4338
Dementia 0 13 201 3330 3544
Cerebrovascular disease 6 119 503 1971 2599
Colorectal cancer 18 260 730 1493 2501
Pancreatic cancer 9 133 577 1248 1967
Breast cancer 59 332 677 851 1919
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease <5 45 358 1279 1686
Prostate cancer <5 40 356 1230 1627
COVID19 0 51 226 1306 1583
Injury and other external causes 72 265 411 769 1517
Oesophageal cancer 6 90 405 731 1232
Brain cancer 23 133 426 526 1108
Parkinson and similar 0 8 88 988 1084
Interstitial pulmonary diseases <5 21 190 820 1033
Lymphoma 7 59 256 705 1027
Other diseases of the digestive system 5 75 222 632 934
Pneumonia <5 50 195 681 930
Liver cancer <5 69 268 565 904
Ovarian cancer 10 88 293 482 873
Top 20 Causes Total 287 2539 9462 26079 38367
Other Causes Total 198 1304 4144 10714 16360



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 386 204 223 254 261 302 338 407 385 399 474 591 641 635 461 5961
Lung cancer 278 191 242 254 263 272 259 324 284 330 321 323 391 352 254 4338
Dementia 5 9 22 41 38 65 118 155 228 270 349 429 534 653 628 3544
Cerebrovascular disease 95 56 78 85 125 100 139 132 173 208 242 253 306 344 263 2599
Colorectal cancer 132 122 123 117 147 144 165 156 147 191 222 200 187 263 185 2501
Pancreatic cancer 97 59 91 84 99 117 118 142 153 146 161 192 180 175 153 1967
Breast cancer 170 114 102 122 117 109 127 117 121 127 161 129 130 159 114 1919
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 46 30 48 46 60 80 96 119 128 169 122 158 211 211 162 1686
Prostate cancer 64 60 55 67 92 94 94 118 110 129 124 134 168 172 146 1627
COVID19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 699 558 179 102 45 1583
Injury and other external causes 118 65 76 81 86 101 100 82 129 110 73 94 160 144 98 1517
Oesophageal cancer 74 44 59 59 70 74 72 75 106 88 93 111 126 107 74 1232
Brain cancer 79 55 64 70 56 81 74 62 84 93 75 67 97 81 70 1108
Parkinson and similar <5 <5 5 11 12 22 45 55 77 107 115 134 147 184 164 1084
Interstitial pulmonary diseases 23 19 30 42 49 38 63 74 63 88 84 94 116 140 110 1033
Lymphoma 51 38 48 40 65 72 57 61 63 73 77 90 110 106 76 1027
Other diseases of the digestive system 44 22 29 31 48 40 60 53 53 63 88 84 121 103 95 934
Pneumonia 29 11 26 26 34 60 57 51 89 85 66 62 102 117 115 930
Liver cancer 39 35 35 40 51 58 51 69 56 68 75 90 77 85 75 904
Ovarian cancer 56 43 42 55 46 56 57 59 60 64 83 62 77 62 51 873
Top 20 Causes Total 1788 1181 1398 1525 1719 1885 2090 2311 2509 2808 3704 3855 4060 4195 3339 38367
Other Causes Total 782 529 570 718 784 858 963 1044 1108 1234 1299 1454 1649 1838 1530 16360




#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, V22, V23, V27, V28, V29, V38, V40, V42, V43, V44, V47, V48, V49, V80, V81, V89, V92, V93, V95, V96, V97, W00, W01, W05, W06, W07, W08, W10, W11, W13, W15, W17, W18, W19, W20, W22, W26, W40, W54, W55, W65, W66, W67, W69, W70, W74, W76, W78, W79, W80, W84, W87, W94, X00, X03, X04, X08, X09, X11, X16, X23, X30, 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, Y09, Y10, Y11, Y12, Y13, Y14, Y17, Y20, Y21, Y28, Y29, Y30, Y31, Y34, Y40, Y44, Y57, Y60, Y65, Y83, Y84, Y85, Y86, Y87, Y88