Reports

Public Health Outcomes Framework Reporting Tool

Main points

In this iteration, the following indicators have been updated:

• Life expectancy
• People in education, employment or training
• Smoking in pregnancy
• Premature deaths from key non-communicable diseases
• Deaths from injuries
• Deaths from road traffic injuries
• Suicides
• Quality of the air we breathe
• Hip fractures among older people
• Avoidable mortality
• Avoidable mortality by cause

The key messages for these indicators are as follows:

• The rate of avoidable mortality from endocrine and metabolic diseases (a category that includes diabetes and obesity) is rising steeply, from 3.5 in 2011-13 to 5.8 in 2022-24. This represents an increase of 66% over the period.
  • For more information on diabetes prevalence and what is being done to tackle it, please see the Diabetes prevalence – trends, risk factors, and 10-year projection report.
• The rate of avoidable mortality from alcohol/drug-related causes has also steadily risen, in females from 15.3 per 100,000 in 2011-13 to 21.2 per 100,000 in 2022-24, and in males from 31.6 to 43.9. This represents a 45% increase for males and a 39% increase for females.
  • The recent Public Health Wales annual profile for substance misuse 2023-2024 presents stark inequalities in drug and alcohol-related deaths. The report authors highlight the importance of access to substance misuse services, whilst also calling for investment in prevention.
• In females, cancer is the most common cause of avoidable mortality, leading to around 1,200 deaths per year.
  • Further information about cancer and inequalities is available in the Inequalities in cancer incidence in Wales by socio-demographic characteristics, 2011-2020 – Public Health Wales report.
• In males, circulatory disease is the most common cause of avoidable mortality with rates remaining consistent since 2011-13. This leads to around 1,550 deaths per year. Avoidable mortality rates for males from both circulatory and alcohol/drug-related mortality are more than double the equivalent rates for females in the latest period.
• The average NO2 concentration in residential areas has continued its broadly downward trend, reaching 6.8µg/m³ in 2023.
• The percentage of mothers who reported as smoking at birth in the 2024 period ranges from 7.6% in Powys THB to 15.8% in Betsi Cadwaladr.
• In 2024, 88% of 16-18 year-olds and 85% of 19-24 year-olds were in education, employment or training.
• Life expectancy is slightly higher in 2022-24 than in 2021-23 for both females and males. In females, life expectancy has returned to the pre-Covid figure of 82.2 years from 2017-19.  The same is true for men, returning to 78.3 years.
  • It should be noted however that life expectancy has been stagnating in Wales since 2011-13, which is a significant change following the consistent increases in life expectancy across previous decades. This stagnation is broadly reflected across G7 countries, for example in Germany and the USA.
• Across local authorities in Wales, life expectancy in males ranges from 75.0 years in Merthyr Tydfil to 80.3 years in Vale of Glamorgan, Powys and Monmouthshire. In females, life expectancy ranges from 79.2 years in Blaenau Gwent to 84.6 years in Monmouthshire.
• Age-standardised rates of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases in Wales have fallen from 324.2 per 100,000 in 2011-13 to 307.6 per 100,000 in 2022-24, a statistically significant decrease.
• The rate of premature deaths from non-communicable diseases in the most deprived fifth is more than twice that in the least deprived fifth in 2022-2024 (486 vs 192 per 100,000). The gap between most and least deprived fifth has been widening since the 2012-2014 period, mostly due to rates in the least deprived fifth falling.
• The rate of deaths from injuries was significantly higher in 2022-24 compared to 2021-23. The largest rise occurred in those aged 65 and over. The increase is largely in males but is observed in females as well. The increase is seen in all deprivation quintiles.
  • As previously noted, deaths from falls have been increasing in recent years. Part of the rise in deaths coded as falls may reflect changes in coding practice, where falls in older people may previously have been recorded using a more generic code for old age.
• The age-standardised rate of deaths from road traffic injuries is nearly four times higher in males than females (4.9 vs 1.3 per 100,000). No trend is available for these data due to relatively small numbers of deaths from road traffic injuries (around 100 per year in Wales).
• There has been a slight increase in the age-standardised rate of registrations of death by suicide in 2020-24 (13.1 per 100,000) compared to 2019-23 (12.5 per 100,000). The rate for males is over three times higher than for females (20.9 compared to 5.9 per 100,000). For males, the rate in the most deprived fifth is around twice that of the least deprived fifth (28.6 compared to 13.7 per 100,000), and the gap between the two groups has widened since 2011-15.
  • Please be aware that the data are likely to be incomplete, particularly for the most recent periods. For deaths by suicide by date of death (also known as ‘suicide occurrences’), please see the data series on Suicide occurrences, England and Wales – Office for National Statistics. In addition, more timely information on death by suspected suicide can be found in the Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance (RTSSS) Annual Report: Deaths by suspected suicide 2024-25 – Public Health Wales.

Data tables

Access the data included in this tool