Causes of death
Mortality is the number of deaths, in general or specific to a cause, in a particular population. It is specifically used as a rate to measure the number of deaths on a large scale (in this case per 100,000), which is calculated to allow comparison between different population sizes and demographics.
Premature Mortality
Premature mortality is a good high-level indicator of the overall health of a population, being correlated with many other measures of population health: there are significant differences between the premature death rates in different areas, reflecting a wide range of underlying differences between these populations.
The latest release of data is for 2015-17, which gives Bolton an overall under 75 mortality rate of 411 per 100,000; this rate is average for the Greater Manchester conurbation however is considered significantly higher than England. Bolton also sits around average when compared to the whole of the North West.
Bolton is as expected when comparing them to Greater Manchester for the majority of under 75 premature mortality indicators; being significantly worse than the national benchmark for cardiovascular diseases, heart disease, cancer, liver disease and respiratory disease.
For premature mortality of all causes, Bolton ranks 128th out of 151 local authorities. Blackpool is the worst (151) followed by Manchester, Liverpool and Middlesbrough.
Preventable Mortality
A death is preventable if, in the light of understanding of the determinants of health at the time of death, all or most deaths from that cause (subject to age limits if appropriate) could be avoided by public health interventions in the broadest sense.
Similarly to premature mortality indicators, Bolton sits around mid-table, when comparing them to the rest of the North West or Greater Manchester for the majority of preventable mortality indicators, larger differences are only seen when broken down by gender.
The Bolton picture
- Global burden of disease - from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Visualisation showing cause of deaths/ years lived with disability/ disability adjusted life years for Bolton and other geographies, also giving age and gender breakdowns and change over time.
- Public Health Outcomes Framework
- NOMIS, Office for National Statistics