The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated November 2008:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many and what proportion of all deaths were from (a) circulation diseases and (b) cancers in each of the last 15 years. (234501)""The tables attached provide the numbers of deaths and proportion of all deaths, with an underlying cause of (a) circulatory disease (table 1) and (b) cancer (table 2) for the years 1993 to 2007 (the latest year available)." Table 1. Number, and proportion of deaths where circulatory disease was the underlying cause of death, in England and Wales, 1993 to 2007¹, ² Deaths Percentage 1993 258,012 45 1994 241,551 44 1995 241,871 43 1998 238,855 42 1997 229,585 41 1998 225,811 41 1999 218,062 39 2000 207,618 39 2001 212,354 40 2002 209,948 39 2003 205,651 38 2004 190,779 37 2005 183,674 36 2006 174,637 35 2007 170,338 34 ¹ Cause of death for circulatory disease was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 390-459 for 1993 to 2000 and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes I00-I99 for 2001 to 2007. The introduction of ICD-10 in 2001 means that the number of deaths from this cause, before 2001 are not completely comparable with later years. ² Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. Table 2. Number, and proportion of deaths where cancer was the underlying cause England and Wales, 1993 to 2007¹, ² Deaths Percentage 1993 140,595 24 1994 139,455 25 1995 138,671 25 1996 138,092 25 1997 135,771 24 1998 136,289 25 1999 133,749 24 2008 132,421 25 2001 136,234 26 2002 137,051 26 2003 136,030 25 2004 134,873 26 2005 134,894 26 2008 135,635 27 2007 136,804 27 ¹ Cause of death for cancer was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes 140-208 for 1993 to 2000 and Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes C00-C97 for 2001 to 2007. The introduction of ICD-10 in 2001 means that the number of deaths from this cause, before 2001 are not completely comparable with later years. ² Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.