The places in Lincolnshire that recorded more deaths than births in 2023

On November 16, 2024By Littum

The parts of England and Wales where people are dying faster than the next generation is being born have been revealed on a new map. Last year, the number of deaths in the UK exceeded the number of deaths for the first time in almost 50 years, excluding the pandemic.

This was the case for every district in Lincolnshire. East Lindsey had by far the largest death to birth ratio with 2,298 deaths and just 930 live births. Lincoln had the lowest with 999 deaths and 903 live births.

But this was not true across the UK. While Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all saw more deaths than births in 2023, the opposite was the case in England as a whole. Last year there were 563,275 live births recorded in England, while 544,054 people died, a difference of 19,221.

Natural population growth – which does not include internal or external migration – was almost entirely driven by London, where more than twice as many people were born as died, with 104,167 births compared to 51,949 deaths. There were also 1,614 more births than deaths in the West Midlands and 985 in the East of England.

You can see if there were more births or deaths where you live using our interactive map

But in every other region of England, deaths exceeded births. The biggest impact on the native population was seen in the South West, where 15,412 more people died than were born.

In Wales there were 8,692 more deaths (36,054) than births (27,362), a greater difference than in any English region, with the exception of the South West. Of the local authority areas in England and Wales, Dorset experienced the biggest decline in its indigenous population.

In 2023 there were 2,410 births and 5,177 deaths in Dorset, a difference of 2,767. North Yorkshire was next, with 2,543 more deaths than births, followed by Somerset (2,275).

Birmingham experienced the largest increase in native population, with almost three times as many births (14,236) as deaths (4,810), increasing the city’s population by 9,426. In Wales, only two areas saw more births than deaths, Cardiff (a difference of 500) and Newport (237).