Mortality

Mortality statistics are a key indicator of public health and quality of life. They help us understand patterns in life expectancy, the leading causes of death, and how these vary across different communities and demographic groups. This page brings together a range of analytical resources focused on mortality in Barnet, offering insight into long‑term trends, local inequalities, and the factors that shape health outcomes across the borough.

Dashboard

The mortality dashboard is an interactive tool, providing detailed insight into mortality and life expectancy within Barnet. This is sorted into themes of standardised mortality ratio, age of mortality, leading and preventable causes of mortality, and life expectancy.

What’s new?

• Updated standardised mortality ratios for 2025

• Neonatal, infant, and child mortality for 2022-24

• New mortality data by leading and preventable cause for 2023-25

• Updated life expectancy and healthy life expectancy for 2023-25

Headline Figures

• Life expectancy in Barnet is significantly above the regional and national average at 82.7 years in men and 86.1 years in women (2023-25).

• As of 2025, the standardised mortality ratio in Barnet is 659 in women and 862 in men. This is significantly below the peak observed in 2020.

• Cancer is the leading cause of mortality in Barnet, though the cancer mortality rate has been declining over the past two decades – the current cancer mortality rate is 227 per 100,000 in men and 169 per 100,000 in women.

• The mortality rate of causes considered preventable in those aged <75 years peaked in 2020-22 and has been declining ever since. Current rates are 61.9 in women and 120.9 in men, both significantly below the London and England averages.

Dashboard Narrative

Standardised Mortality Ratio: Standardised mortality ratio (SMR) is the ratio of the number of deaths in a population in a time period to the number that would be expected over the same period if the population had the same age-specific rates as a standard population. The SMR varies by sex in Barnet, with a ratio of 659 in women compared to one of 862 in men in 2025. These ratios are both significantly below the London and England averages. At the MSOA level in 2019-2023, lowest SMR was in Finchley Central at 56, where as the the highest SMR was more than double this at 123, observed in Friern Barnet.

Children: There are several different measures of mortality in children: neonatal mortality ratio (number of deaths under 28 days per 1,000 live births), infant mortality rate (number of deaths in persons aged under 1 year per 1,000 live births), and child mortality rate (number of deaths due to all causes in persons aged 1-17 years per 100,000 population). The neonatal mortality ratio, infant mortality rate, and child mortality rate in Barnet in 2022-24 were all similar to the London and England averages .

Age: The winter mortality index measures the difference in mortality in those aged 85+ in the winter months compared to the summer. As an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the winter mortality ratio in Barnet rose by over 600% in August 2020 – July 2021. However, it has since decreased once more to 6.3 percentage difference in Aug 2021 – July 2022. This is the lowest the index has ever been, and is in line with the regional and national average.

Leading causes: The leading cause of mortality in Barnet in 2023-25 was cancer, with a mortality rate of 192 per 100,000, though rates have been continuously declining over the past two decades. Mortality from cancer was higher in men than in women in Barnet. The second-highest cause of mortality in women is dementia and Alzheimer's disease, with a rate of 95 per 100,000. On the other hand, in men the second highest causes are ischaemic heart disease at 117 per 100,000, and respiratory disease at 101 per 100,000.

Preventable causes: In Barnet in 2022-24, the SMR from causes considered preventable was 61.9 in females and 120.9 in males – in both genders, this is below the London and England averages. The preventable mortality rate in both genders peaked in 2020-22, a clear impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. For women, the highest preventable cause is cancer with a rate of 27 per 100,000. In men, the cancer (41 per 100,000) and cardiovascular disease (34 per 100,000) were the top preventable causes.

Life expectancy:Overall life expectancy has been increasing in Barnet over the last two decades and is significantly above London and England average. The COVID-19 pandemic led to a dip in life expectancy in 2020-22, but this has since rebounded and continues to increase. In 2023-25, the life expectancy in Barnet was 82.7 years in men and 86.1 years in females.

However, healthy life expectancy has been declining so whilst people are living longer, they are spending more of their lives in poor health. Women particularly have a longer general life expectancy in Barnet than men but spend less of this in good health, with a healthy life expectancy of 61.7 years compared to 62.7 years in men, as of 2022-24. In both genders, this is similar to the regional and national average.

There is inequality in life expectancy in Barnet, with a gap of 7.4 years for men and 4.6 years for women between those living in the most and least deprived areas. We can see variation at the MSOA level in 2019-2023. For women, life expectancy highest in Osidge (88.2 years) and lowest in Colindale East (79.3 years) whereas for men this was highest in East Finchley (85.9 years) and lowest in Burnt Oak & Watling Park (77.1 years).

Mortality and deprivation map

This map highlights a clear link between deprivation and mortality in Barnet. More deprived areas experience higher mortality rates, even after adjusting for age. Key findings include:

• Areas in the most deprived tertile with high mortality have the highest age‑standardised mortality rates (around 10.5 per 1,000).

• In contrast, areas with low deprivation and low mortality have rates closer to 2.3 per 1,000.

• A strong gradient is visible — mortality increases consistently as deprivation increases.

• These inequalities are not limited to one neighbourhood. Higher mortality rates appear across all 24 wards, showing that this pattern is borough‑wide rather than confined to isolated pockets

Further information

• OHID Mortality Profile: bring together a selection of mortality indicators to provide a wide range of publicly available resources and make it easier to assess outcomes across a range of causes of death.

• OHID Productive Healthy Ageing Profile: provide data and further information on a wide range of topics relevant to our health as we age.

• North Central London Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Annual Report 2024/25: part of CDOP’s work to identify every opportunity to learn and to recommend improvement that might prevent another child death in the future.