Age-standardised annualised all cause monthly mortality in England & Wales 2001 – 2021

A comparison of methods (rev 1.4)

That title is a bit of a mouthful so let me dice it into… er… slices, then grill them lightly with a knob of butter, grated cheese and a blob of mustard:

Age-standardised

In our society older people are at greater risk of dying each year compared to younger people, so if the age profile of the population changes over time then the underlying national risk of death changes. In the UK we have a post war baby boom that is maturing nicely so as these souls reach those golden years of pharmaceutical bliss more of them are going to die than compared to matured souls three decades ago. These changes need to be accounted for and we do this by calculating the risk of death by age group then adopting a reference year to nail a population profile standard. In my calculations I have adopted quinary (5-year) age groups for risk assessment for males and females separately and used the age profile of the English & Welsh population as it was in 2012 as my standard. The ONS have adopted a number of age …