The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 7 July 2008:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths of children there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by cause and ranked by frequency of cause. (216377)
The table attached provides the number of deaths of children aged under 16 years by cause, for 2002 to 2006 (the latest year available). The figures are ranked by the overall frequency of each cause across the period.
Deaths Cause 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2002-06 Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities 382 366 338 376 368 1830 Symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions 256 238 259 263 231 1247 Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period 205 199 220 194 159 977 Land transport accidents 169 157 158 153 143 780 Malignant neoplasms of lymphoid, haematopoietic and related tissue 121 101 80 69 86 457 Malignant neoplasm of brain 82 90 82 79 88 421 Meningitis 80 106 70 78 54 388 Influenza and pneumonia 70 72 58 78 70 348 Cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes 62 68 56 71 84 341 Accidental threats to breathing 54 62 49 53 49 267 Septicaemia 46 50 63 43 47 ¦ 249 Epilepsy and status epilepticus 46 48 48 44 42 228 Systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system 36 34 32 39 38 179 Chronic lower respiratory diseases 34 30 43 29 41 177 Cardiomyopathy 24 42 23 34 45 168 Suicide and injury/poisoning of undetermined intent 35 38 27 32 25 157 Cerebrovascular diseases 31 28 27 35 30 151 Accidental drowning and submersion 32 36 17 32 26 143 Benign neoplasms, in situ and uncertain behaviour 31 19 28 31 28 137 Homicide and probable homicide 27 29 27 25 27 135 Malignant neoplasms of bone and articular cartilage 26 28 31 18 19 122 Acute respiratory diseases other than influenza and pneumonia 24 15 33 17 21 110 Heart failure and complications and ill-defined heart disease 20 19 19 11 18 87 Appendicitis, hernia and intestinal obstruction 15 20 15 8 15 73 Accidental fails 13 18 10 14 17 72 Pulmonary heart disease and diseases of pulmonary circulation 18 13 13 10 16 70 Cirrhosis and other diseases of liver 12 9 19 16 10 66 Malignant neoplasm of kidney, except renal pelvis 4 19 13 12 11 59 Diseases of the urinary system 9 13 11 9 12 54 Diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue 6 14 14 10 10 54 Pulmonary oedema and other intestinal pulmonary diseases 8 11 8 7 12 46 Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use 19 6 7 5 3 40 Vaccine-preventable diseases 6 3 12 8 9 38 Accidental poisoning 4 5 7 8 7 31 Intestinal infectious diseases 1 5 6 9 4 25 Malignant neoplasm of liver and intraheptic bile ducts 4 8 7 3 3 25 Cardiac arrhythmias 3 3 6 4 5 21 Ischaemic heart diseases 3 4 2 5 6 20 Diabetes 4 3 5 5 1 18 Disorders of fluid, electrolyte and acid-based balance (dehydration) 4 7 2 0 2 15 Tuberculosis 1 1 4 5 3 14 Non-rheumatic valve disorders 1 2 3 5 3 14 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease 3 4 3 1 3 14 Cardiac arrest 2 0 3 3 2 10 Malnutrition and nutritional anaemias 1 2 1 0 5 9 Aortic aneurysm and dissection 1 3 1 1 2 8 Chronic rheumatic heart diseases 0 1 1 2 2 6 Melanoma and other malignant neoplasms of skin 3 1 2 0 0 6 Malignant neoplasm of bladder 0 0 1 2 1 4 Respiratory failure 0 0 2 0 1 3 Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung 1 0 1 0 1 3 Vector-borne diseases and rabies 1 0 1 1 0 3 Malignant neoplasm of ovary 1 1 0 0 0 2 Malignant neoplasm of stomach 0 0 0 0 1 1 Malignant neoplasm of prostate 0 0 0 1 0 1 Malignant neoplasm of gallbladder and other parts of biliary tract 1 0 0 0 0 1 Non-intentional firearm discharge 1 0 0 0 0 1 Other 544 563 518 469 562 2,656 Total 2,587 2,614 2,486 2,427 2,468 12,582 1 Selected using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code groups based on a list published in 2005: Griffiths C, Rooney C and Brock A (2005) Leading causes of death in England and Wales—how should we group causes? Health Statistics Quarterly 28, p 6-17. 2 For the purposes of mortality statistics, children are defined as persons under the age of 16. Figures exclude deaths at ages under 28 days. 3 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.