Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): mortality data

Chart 1 shows that during the last year the annual mortality rate from COPD for both males  and females has continued to decrease slightly (1.6% and 2.5% respectively). Caution should be taken when interpreting data from the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Excluding the most recent year, between 1996 and 2019 the annual mortality rate from COPD (expressed per 100,000 population, standardised to take account of any age differences) has fallen in males. During the same period the rate for females increased. The standardised mortality rate (using the 2013 European Standard Population) in the male population fell 39.4% from 97.3 deaths per 100,000 per year in 1996 to 59.0 in 2019 and in females increased by 14.4% from 48.0 per 100,000 in 1996 to 54.9 in 2019. The ratio of male to female death rates has fallen from 2.0 in 1996 to 1.1 in 2019. More information on deaths caused by COPD can be found in the ScotPHO profiles tool.

Age-standardised Death Rates are also published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) for respiratory diseases as a whole. Note that NRS includes non-residents in their analysis.