Births and Deaths

The ratio of births to deaths (Figure 1) in Blackpool has shown a consistently greater number of deaths than births apart from in 2014. By comparison there has been consistently more births than deaths across England as a whole, though the ratio fell between 2012 and 2020.

In COVID-19 affected 2020, the birth to death ratio fell sharply. In Blackpool there were 257 more deaths and 90 fewer live births recorded than the previous year (Figure 2), resulting in the birth to death ratio falling from 0.86 to 0.71 (71 births per 100 deaths). This reducing ratio was also reflected nationally, where there was a 6% decline in live births and a 14% increase in recorded deaths compared to 2019, though there were still more births than deaths across England.

2021 statistics show slight reductions in the overall number of deaths from 2020 (a 1% reduction in Blackpool and a 4% reduction nationally), though numbers remained higher than pre-Covid levels. In Blackpool the number of births continued to fall, with 1,423 births, 57 fewer (-4%) than the previous year. This resulted in the birth to death ratio falling to 0.69 (69 births per 100 deaths). Nationally the birth to death ratio increased to 1.08, with a 2% increase in births across England.

2022 saw another slight reduction in the number of deaths 

Figure 1 - Births/deaths ratio: Blackpool and England