Chapter 3 - Health
                                         
Table 3.1 Deaths in the UK Regular Armed Forces, year of occurrence by Service, numbers                      and rates1
In order to make meaningful comparisons of the numbers of deaths between the Services and take their different strengths into account, rates were calculated and standardised for age and gender, using the 2006 Armed Forces strength as the standard population.

During the 10-year period 1998-2007, the overall Armed Forces age and gender standardised mortality rates fluctuated between a low of 66 per 100,000 in 1999 and a high of 105 per 100,000 in 2007.

In 2003 and 2004 there were increases in the number of deaths in the Naval Service due to 3 helicopter incidents involving multiple deaths during operations in the Middle East. In 2006 there was one incident involving multiple fatalities when two Royal Marines died, however, another six Royal Marines and one member of Navy personnel died on operations in separate incidents.

The increase in the RAF mortality rate from 61 per 100,000 in 2004 to 71 per 100,000 in 2005 was accounted for by a Hercules crash in Iraq in January 2005 which claimed the lives of 9 RAF personnel. The similar increase from 71 to 84 per 100,000 in 2006 was accounted for by the loss of 12 RAF personnel in a Nimrod crash in Afghanistan in September 2006.

The increase in Army fatality rates from 94 per 100,000 in 2006 to 128 per 100,000 in 2007 was mainly accounted for by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan which resulted in 86 lives lost in 2007 (71 as a result of hostile action), compared to 67 lives lost (47 as a result of hostile action) in 2006.

Numbers of deaths 1998   1999   2000   2001   2002   2003   2004   2005   2006 2 2007  
Total 165   141   147   142   147   173   169   158   190   201  
Naval Service 26   26   25   33   26   37   37   27   33   27  
Army 97   83   88   80   94   97   95   91   110 r 143  
RAF 42   32   34   29   27   39   37   40   47 r 31  
Death rates3,4 per 100,000 strength
Total 78   66   71   69   72   82   80   78   96 2 105  
Naval Service 62   60   63   80   67   90   91   69   85 r 69  
Army 87   73   79   71   83   79   77   81   94 r 128  
RAF 66   49   62   49   52   73   61   71   84 r 66  
Source: DASA (Health Information)

1.    The information on deaths presented here is for the UK Regular Armed Forces (including Gurkhas) and includes all trained and untrained personnel. The data exclude the Home Service of the Royal Irish Regiment, mobilised reservists, full time reservists, Territorial Army and Naval activated reservists as DASA do not receive routine notification of all deaths amongst reservists and non-regulars, unless they are deployed on active service.

2.    Numbers and rates of deaths in 2006 have been revised since the last UKDS publication. The number of Army deaths has increased by one due to a missing member of personnel being declared dead. One RAF death was removed from the figures due to reclassification as a member of reservist personnel.

3.    Rates have been age and gender standardised to the 2006 Armed Forces population and are expressed per 100,000 strength.

4.    Changes in rates of deaths are due to the use of 2006 Armed Forces strengths denominator data, and also reflect the changes to numbers of deaths described above.


Mortality Rates by Service 1998-2007