What the statistics cover, how we produce them, their strengths and limitations, and definitions. Include latest changes to quality and methods.
We have not made any changes to our child and infant deaths statistics methodology since we previously updated this guide on 31 May 2024.
For past changes to methodology, go to Changes to the statistics that affect comparability over time.
We link information from birth registrations and notifications, and death registrations to produce annual statistics on child and infant deaths in England and Wales.
It is a legal requirement to register births and deaths (and for healthcare providers to notify births) within a certain time and with correct information. This means the data is generally complete.
We and the registrars carry out thorough validation and quality assurance checks on the data to ensure our statistics are as accurate as possible.
These are accredited official statistics of a high quality.
We present statistics on child and infant deaths for England and Wales in two separate datasets:
This dataset presents all stillbirths and child and infant deaths that occurred in a certain year. For example, the child and infant deaths by year of death: 2023 dataset presents all stillbirths and child and infant deaths that occurred in 2023.
This dataset presents all stillbirths and infant deaths that occurred within a year of birth for a certain birth year. For example, the infant deaths before their first birthday (by year of birth): 2022 dataset presents all stillbirths and infant deaths within a year of birth for babies born in 2022.
The child and infant deaths (by year of death) dataset on its own cannot tell us how many stillbirths and infant deaths occurred before their first birthday for a certain birth year.
For example, infants born in 2022 that died before their first birthday could have died in either 2022 or 2023. The child and infant deaths by year of death: 2023 dataset would only show the portion of these deaths that occurred in 2023.
We provide breakdowns of stillbirths and deaths in both datasets by characteristics of the baby and mother, and age at death.
Both datasets exclude:
A parent must register a birth within 42 days.
Birth registrations include information about:
Birth registrations are received by a registrar.
A doctor, nurse or midwife present at the birth must submit a birth notification within 36 hours to the Regional Director of Public Health. A birth notification includes information that is not included on the birth registration, such as gestation length and the baby’s ethnicity.
The birth notification is sent to the local authority where the birth occurred – this is the clinical commissioning group in in England, and the local health board in Wales
The local authority sends a list of birth notifications for a sub-district to the registrar, who checks whether each birth that has a notification has also been registered. The registrar also verifies each registered birth by checking it is on the birth notification list.
A death must be registered within five days of it occurring. However, sometimes death registrations can be delayed.
Death registrations include information about:
We link death registrations with corresponding birth registrations. This allows us to get more social and biological information about the baby and parents than we could from death registrations alone.
Where possible, we’ve also linked death registrations with corresponding birth notifications back to 2007 – the earliest year we can apply this type of linkage. This allows us to get more information about the baby, such as gestational age and ethnicity, than we could from death registrations and birth registrations alone.
Having a low gestational age and being from a Back or Asian ethnic group are main risk factors associated with deaths in the perinatal (stillbirths and early neonatal) period – linking these helps us to provide better analysis of the relationship between gestational age and ethnic group, and deaths.
The registrar links birth notifications with birth registrations, which creates a unique sequence number. We use this number to carry out our own re-linkage.
If the registrar has not been able to link a birth registration and birth notification (meaning the unique sequence number is not available), we use probabilistic linkage. This means we link birth registrations with birth notifications based on the likelihood of them being for the same baby.
We extract the total number of deaths occurring in a calendar death year (for example, 2023) from the deaths registrations database. We do this approximately 9 to 10 months after the end of the death year to allow for late registrations.
A small number of deaths will not have been registered by this point, but this is an appropriate balance between accuracy and timeliness.
We then link these deaths with birth registrations and birth notifications.
We extract the total number of births occurring in a calendar birth year (for example, 2022) from the birth registrations database and birth notifications database. We do this approximately six to seven months after the end of the birth year and then link the two.
Next, we extract the infant deaths occurring in the same year as the birth year, and in the following year (for example, 2022 and 2023, respectively). We extract data for both years because an infant born near the start of the birth year may die during that year before their first birthday, and an infant born near the end of the birth year may die in the following year before their first birthday. We do this 10 to 11 months and 22 to 23 months after the end of the birth year, respectively.
This means that the infant deaths before their first birthday (by year of birth) dataset is less timely than the child and infant deaths (by year of death) dataset. However, this time lag allows us to provide additional analysis.
We then link the birth and death occurrences to decipher how many infants that were born in a certain birth year died before their first birthday.
These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in [Month Year]. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics”
When a birth or death is registered, the registrar carries out validation checks.
When we extract births and deaths data from the databases, we then carry out our own validation and consistency checks. By doing so, we eliminate any errors made in the supply and recording of birth and death registrations.
We carry out more frequent and thorough checks on registrations with extreme values for the main variables (such as age of mother and father), as these have a greater impact on the statistics.
If we spot a registration that doesn’t look right, we raise it with the General Register Office (GRO) for additional verification. We usually only need to do this for a small number of registrations per month.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has developed guidelines for measuring statistical quality based on the five European Statistical System (ESS) Quality Dimensions. This guide explains our processes and methods to helps users understand how we meet the five dimensions.
Over the years, we have made changes to our methods. Sometimes this is to improve the statistics, and sometimes it is to reflect external changes (such as technological advancements).
Changes to methods can affect the comparability of certain aspects of the statistics over time.
The definition of a stillbirth changed from 28 or more weeks’ gestation to 24 or more weeks’ gestation on 1 October 1992 (Still-Birth (Definition) Act 1992). This means our statistics on stillbirths from 1993 are not comparable with those for previous years.
In 1986, England and Wales introduced new certificates for registering neonatal deaths (infants that died aged under 28 days) and stillbirths in line with a recommendation from the World Health Organization’s (WHO). These are different to standard death certificates – they do not assign a single underlying cause of death, and instead give certifiers more flexibility to report on multiple relevant diseases in both the infant and the mother.
This meant we could no longer directly compare a single underlying cause of death for neonatal deaths and stillbirths with postneonatal deaths (infants that died aged between 28 days and 1 year).
To address this, we developed a classification system (PDF, 72KB) of broad cause of death groups, where a computer algorithm directs any mention of a “mechanism” that led to death on both death certificate types to the first appropriate cause group.
This allows us to directly compare stillbirths and neonatal deaths with postneonatal deaths, despite the differences in registration.
We have not made any changes to our child and infant deaths statistics methodology since we last updated this guide on 31 May 2024.
We are not currently making any changes to our child and infant deaths statistics methodology.
We have no plans to make changes our child and infant deaths statistics methodology in the next year.
Mothers and babies: reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK’s (MBRRACE-UK) infant deaths statistics are not comparable with ours.
A range of organisations and government departments use our child and infant deaths statistics to inform services and policies, and ensure targets are met. For example:
Other users include academics, researchers, charities, and the media.
For definitions of how we categories different ages at death, go to Age at death categories .
The matching of death records to their corresponding birth registration record and/or birth notification record.
Number of deaths according to the date on which the death occurred, and the number of births according to the date on which the birth occurred.
Number of deaths according to the date on which the deaths were registered, and number of births according to the date on which the births were registered. .
“The disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence which produced the fatal injury”, in accordance with the rules of the International Classification of Diseases (excludes deaths that occurred under age 28 days).
Live births, stillbirths and linked infant deaths occurring annually in England and Wales, and associated risk factors.
Annual statistics on births and infant deaths based on babies born in a calendar year that died before their first birthday linked to their corresponding birth notification and their corresponding death registration.
Supporting information for deaths statistics, which present figures on deaths registered in England and Wales in a specific week, month, quarter or year.
Supporting information for birth statistics, which present figures on births that occur and are then registered in England and Wales. Figures are based on information collected at birth registration.
Office for National Statistics (ONS), updated 7 April 2025, ONS website, quality and methods guide, child and infant deaths quality and methods guide ,
Population Health Monitoring Group
health.care@ons.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 1329 444 110
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