Heart attacks and age

​FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4632

You asked

Please can you send to me the stats on heart attacks and the ages associated with these illnesses?

We said

​Thank you for your enquiry,

Unfortunately, we do not hold data regarding heart attack occurrences. NHS Digital may be better placed to answer this enquiry, they can be contacted at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.

The British Heart Foundation also publish data for the UK and constituent countries regarding heart related mortality and morbidity. They can be contacted at 0300 330 3322.

However, we do hold mortality data, which is derived from information collected at the point of 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 (World Health Organisation) 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 heart attack (myocardial infarction) is I21.  

The information you have requested is available via the following link to our NOMIS webservice. Please see the associated download accompanying this request, extracted from NOMIS, named 'I21 Deaths in England and Wales by age 2013 to 2021'. This provides deaths where the underlying cause is ICD10 code I21 for England and Wales including non-residents (Total mortality) by 5-year age band from 2013 to 2021. This output also includes the percentage of all deaths (within that sex and age band and ICD-10 code). Deaths by individual ICD-10 cause are also published in Deaths registered in England and Wales – 21st century mortality: 2001 to 2021.

Should you wish to use our NOMIS webservice, please see the following instructions for using this service:

• Select date – 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 or use I21).  
• Select format (Excel or CSV for example)

2022 data

We publish leading causes of death as part of Monthly Mortality Analysis, however, myocardial infarction is not included in the top ten leading causes in 2022. We can produce a bespoke request of deaths registered where myocardial infarction was the underlying cause of death or contributory mention in England and Wales by 5 year age band using provisional 2022 data.  

Please note, whilst the data is provisional, it is still subject to change. This is to allow the inclusion of late registrations, which are deaths that have been referred for Coroner investigation.  

The ONS (Office of National Statistics) Requesting Statistics service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources, and agreement to costs under the Charging policy. Custom extracts are available to order from the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) Customer Services team, who can be contacted at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.