Cancer And Heart Disease Kill Most In NI

While the number of deaths registered in Northern Ireland last year was up only slightly at 14,649 - an increase of just over 100 deaths or 0.8% on the 14,532 deaths registered in 2006 - the causes were more dramatically illustrated.

Just under half of all fatalities (43%) registered in Northern Ireland can be attributed to just two major groups - cancer, which caused 26% of deaths (3,870 deaths) and ischaemic heart disease, which led to another 17% of deaths (2,494 deaths).

These are some of the findings in the '2007 Annual Report of the Registrar General' published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

The report provides information on births, deaths, marriages, civil partnerships, adoptions and divorces registered in 2007.

Among other statistics revealed was news that Northern Ireland's population exceeded 1.75 million in mid-2007, increasing by 1.0% over the previous year when the UK population increased by 0.6%.

It also showed that, last year, there was also a marked increase in the number of babies born and marriages registered.

(BMcC)