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 18 March 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, 44197 UK Biobank participants have died, with a mean age at death of 71 years. Men constitute 59% of deaths but are on average 4 months older than women when they die.

Sex No.  Percent Mean Age at Death
F 18191 41 70.8
M 26006 59 71.1


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 37 390 1521 2795 4743
Lung cancer 22 261 1293 2092 3668
Dementia 0 10 181 2006 2197
Colorectal cancer 18 241 656 1114 2029
Cerebrovascular disease 6 113 461 1374 1954
Breast cancer 58 314 614 640 1626
Pancreatic cancer 9 128 528 951 1616
COVID19 0 51 215 1154 1420
Prostate cancer <5 36 328 921 1286
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease <5 39 325 891 1259
Injury and other external causes 71 238 346 459 1114
Oesophageal cancer 6 85 372 567 1030
Brain cancer 22 128 385 407 942
Lymphoma 7 57 234 530 828
Interstitial pulmonary diseases <5 19 170 577 768
Ovarian cancer 10 85 270 387 752
Liver cancer <5 66 246 424 738
Parkinson and similar 0 6 75 640 721
Other diseases of the digestive system 5 70 200 439 714
Leukaemia 9 44 197 432 682
Top 20 Causes Total 289 2381 8617 18800 30087
Other Causes Total 192 1194 3676 7590 12652



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 Total
Ischemic heart disease 386 204 217 254 261 302 338 404 383 390 473 591 540 4743
Lung cancer 277 190 234 254 263 272 259 324 284 326 321 322 342 3668
Dementia 5 9 21 41 38 65 118 155 227 268 349 429 472 2197
Colorectal cancer 132 122 119 117 147 144 165 156 147 190 222 199 169 2029
Cerebrovascular disease 95 55 76 85 125 100 139 132 171 203 242 252 279 1954
Breast cancer 170 114 96 122 117 108 127 117 121 126 161 129 118 1626
Pancreatic cancer 97 59 88 84 99 117 118 142 151 144 161 192 164 1616
COVID19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 699 558 163 1420
Prostate cancer 64 60 52 67 92 94 94 117 110 129 124 134 149 1286
Emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 46 30 42 46 60 80 96 118 128 167 122 158 166 1259
Injury and other external causes 116 64 74 81 86 100 100 77 122 61 73 87 73 1114
Oesophageal cancer 74 44 58 59 70 74 72 74 106 86 93 110 110 1030
Brain cancer 79 55 60 70 56 81 74 62 84 92 74 67 88 942
Lymphoma 51 38 46 40 65 72 57 61 63 71 77 90 97 828
Interstitial pulmonary diseases 23 19 30 42 49 38 63 73 62 86 84 94 105 768
Ovarian cancer 56 43 40 55 46 56 57 59 59 64 83 62 72 752
Liver cancer 39 35 35 40 51 58 51 69 56 68 75 90 71 738
Parkinson and similar <5 <5 5 11 12 22 45 55 77 107 115 134 132 721
Other diseases of the digestive system 44 22 28 31 48 40 60 53 51 61 88 83 105 714
Leukaemia 40 30 33 38 61 55 61 33 56 72 75 58 70 682
Top 20 Causes Total 1796 1197 1354 1537 1746 1878 2094 2281 2458 2711 3711 3839 3485 30087
Other Causes Total 769 503 531 706 757 861 958 1053 1129 1205 1288 1447 1445 12652




#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
Leukaemia C91, C92, C93, C94, C95
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
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 V03, V04, V05, V09, V13, V14, V17, V18, V19, V20, V23, V27, V28, V29, 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, W55, W65, W67, 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