Deaths due to pancreatic cancer 2019 to 2022

FOI REF: FOI/2023/5041 

You asked

I would like to know the actual number of deaths due to pancreatic cancer that occurred in each of the years 2019 to 2022. Any data relating to 2023 would also be most welcome.

We said

Thank you for your request. 

Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules.   

The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as: 

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury 

The ICD-10 cause code for pancreatic cancer is C25. 

Some of the information you have requested is available as part of our explorable dataset on our NOMIS webservice. Data showing deaths registered where Pancreatic cancer was the underlying cause of death in England and Wales for 2020 and 2021 can be found in the associated download named "FOI-2023-5041_Pancreatic_Cancer_Mortality_2020_to_2021_NOMIS.xlsx". 

If you would like to select further disaggregation, please see the following instructions: 

• Select period: 2013 to 2021 

• Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority) 

• Select Age – All ages or 5-year age bands 

• Select Gender – Total or Male/Female   

• Select rates – All deaths, rates, or percentage of population for example. 

• Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available) 

• Select format (Excel or CSV for example)   

To allow the inclusion of late registrations, which are deaths referred for Coroner investigation, we will publish finalised 2022 data into NOMIS in July 2023.

However, we can provide a bespoke request using provisional 2022 and 2023 data, but please note this is subject to change, as the data are not yetr finalised. We can also produce a dataset where pancreatic cancer is a secondary cause or mention on the death certificate as NOMIS only provides underlying cause of death. 

Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data are available to order from the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight Customer Service Team. These extracts are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy.

For further information or to obtain a quote for this work, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.