Series

The purpose of the Vital Statistics for England and Wales data is to record the numbers of conceptions, live births, stillbirths, deaths and causes of death for persons in England and Wales, by gender and age. Data are available aggregated to ward level, or local/health authority and ward level, depending on the year. Individual studies in the series record various parts of these data. Changes have been made over time to the way in which the Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects vital statistics data, resulting in some variation in the content of later studies in the series. The UK Data Service holds Vital Statistics data from 1981 onwards.

During 2006, Sam Smith and colleagues at ESDS Government carried out work on various studies in the series prior to 2002, to improve the data format. The resulting files have been re-deposited at the UK Data Service. More information is available in the documentation for the studies concerned.

Data are available from 1981 to 2006. For a list of all the datasets, see the DATA ACCESS section on this page.

Vital statistics recorded in England and Wales are aggregated at ward level or at ward and local/health authority level depending on the year.

No, these are datasets aggregated to ward level or ward and local/health authority levels.

Variable lists and PDF user guides, including questionnaires, are freely available in the documentation section of the catalogue page for each survey. To find a survey catalogue page, follow the link from this page under DATA ACCESS or from the Discover results pages.

You can find vital statistics published by the ONS on the ONS website.

See our teaching pages for practical information, exemplars, and tips for using UK Data Service data in teaching, including:

• ideas for using data in teaching
• practical advice on sharing data with students
• teaching resources
• teaching case studies