A mortality ratio is the ratio of observed deaths in a study group compared to expected deaths in the wider population.

Our Standard Mortality Ratio is equal to 1.0, this means the number of observed deaths equals that expected in a standard population. If the ratio is higher than 1.0, then there are a higher number of deaths than expected. If it’s less than 1.0 then deaths are lower than expected.

The underlying data in our model allows us to view data based on age bands and gender. As a whole Leeds has a higher than expected average mortality ratio of 1.19.

The visualisation above shows the areas with the highest mortality ratio tend to be in the centre of the city where there are higher levels of deprivation.

Taking the nation as a whole we can compare the mortality ratio of Leeds with the national averages by age band. In the table below you can see the variances.

Here we can see Leeds mortality ratio is higher than the UK average for all age bands and that the difference increases in later years. There will be many contributing factors for why this is the case, for example, higher air pollution, lower income and access to services may all play a part.