FOI reference: FOI/2022/4444
You asked
Is it possible to give the yearly death rate of former miners of the UK that passed away from industrial disease or injury caused or was partly caused by there employment in the mines on a yearly basis since the demise of the coal industry also to include if possible were mining injury or disease wasn't the primary cause of death but was included on the death certificate?
And which mining disease was the biggest cause of death?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore we do not hold the requested information for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain Scottish or Northern Irish data, NRS and NISRA can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
However, please see the following information we hold for England and Wales, which may be of use:
All of 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
We do not have a standard definition of mining related disease, but you can identify deaths from specific causes by finding the corresponding ICD code from the ICD online lookup.
You can find deaths registered in England and Wales by underlying cause (ICD code) in the following publications:
NOMIS - This is an interactive web service that provides death registration statistics for England and Wales, 2013 to 2021, broken down by calendar year of registration, age, sex, underlying cause of death and area of usual residence of the deceased. Please follow these instructions to use the NOMIS webservice:
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)
Deaths Registered Series - Annual death registrations and age standardised rates by age group, sex, selected underlying causes of death and the leading causes of death, England and Wales. Latest year of data available is 2021.
20th Century Mortality and 21st Century Mortality - annual deaths registrations for England and Wales, 1901 to 2021, by age group, sex, year and underlying cause of death.
Occupation code of the deceased is also recorded on the death certificate. The following datasets showing number of deaths by occupation code. Figures in these tables are based on Standard occupational classification 2010 (SOC 2010). You can identify miners by filtering on the following occupation codes:
- 1123 Production managers and directors in mining and energy
- 8122 Coal mine operatives
- 8123 Miner, clay or tin (not coal)
Deaths registered by occupation, code 5 year age group and sex 2020 in England and Wales
Deaths registered, by occupation code, 5 year age group and sex, 2019, England and Wales
Deaths Registrations by occupation code, 5 year age group and sex, 2018, England and Wales
Deaths registered, by occupation code, 5 year age group and sex, 2011 to 2016, England and Wales
If you are interested in ordering a custom output, or you have any further queries or feedback, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) may hold statistics for specifically mining related deaths. They can be contacted via the following email address: InformationRequest@hse.gov.uk.