Deaths from ‘big three killers’ fall

23 June 2005

The number of deaths from Scotland's "big three killers" has fallen, the Register General announced today.

The first Vital Events Quarterly Return for 2005, which shows provisional figures for births, deaths and marriages registered during the period 1 January to 31 March 2005, has been published.

It shows that the number of deaths from Scotland's three biggest killers has fallen by 54 deaths (1.4 per cent) for cancer, 58 deaths (2.0 per cent) for coronary heart disease and 66 deaths (3.7 per cent) for strokes, in comparison to the first quarter of 2004.

Registrar General for Scotland Duncan Macniven said:

"These figures don't report a great deal of change.

"There were 284 more deaths than in the first quarter of 2004. However, deaths from Scotland's big three killers have fallen and the number of births outnumbered deaths in East Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, Shetland Islands and West Lothian.

"There were slightly fewer births than in the same quarter in 2004 - only the second time since mid-2002 that the quarterly number of births has fallen.

"Marriages in the first quarter of 2005 (3,834) are similar to the first quarter of 2004 (3,860)."

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