Published: 18 March 2026
Public Health Wales has refreshed the indicators in the Public Health Outcomes Framework reporting tool.
First published in March 2016, the purpose of the Public Health Outcomes Framework is to help understand the impact which individual behaviours, public services, programmes and policies are having on health and wellbeing in Wales.
In this iteration the following indicators have been updated: avoidable mortality, life expectancy, air quality, smoking in pregnancy, education, employment or training and mortality indicators including: non-communicable diseases, injuries, road traffic accidents and deaths by suicide.
Avoidable Mortality
- The rate of avoidable mortality from endocrine and metabolic diseases (a category that includes diabetes and obesity) is rising steeply, from 3.5 per 100,000 in 2011-13 to 5.8 per 100,000 in 2022-24. This represents an increase of 66% over the period.
- In females, cancer is the most common cause of avoidable mortality, leading to around 1,200 deaths per year.
- In males, circulatory disease is the most common cause of avoidable mortality with rates remaining consistent since 2011-13. This leads to around 1,550 deaths per year.
- Avoidable mortality rates for males from both circulatory and alcohol/drug-related mortality are more than double the equivalent rates for females in the latest period.
Life expectancy for Wales
- Life expectancy is slightly higher in 2022-24 than in 2021-23 for both females and males. In females, life expectancy has returned to the pre-Covid figure of 82.2 years from 2017-19. The same is true for men, returning to 78.3 years. It should be noted however that life expectancy has been stagnating in Wales since 2011-13, which is a significant change following the consistent increases in life expectancy across previous decades. This stagnation is broadly reflected across G7 countries, for example in Germany and the USA.
- Across local authorities in Wales, life expectancy in males ranges from 75.0 years in Merthyr Tydfil to 80.3 years in Vale of Glamorgan, Powys and Monmouthshire. In females, life expectancy ranges from 79.2 years in Blaenau Gwent to 84.6 years in Monmouthshire.
Mortality – Deaths by Suicide
- There has been a slight increase in the age-standardised rate of registrations of death by suicide in 2020-24 (12.5 per 100,000) compared to 2019-23 (13.1 per 100,000). The rate for males is over three times higher than for females (20.9 compared to 5.9 per 100,000).
- For males, the rate in the most deprived fifth is around twice that of the least deprived fifth (28.6 compared to 13.7 per 100,000), and the gap between the two groups has widened since 2011-15.
- For deaths by suicide by date of death (also known as ‘suicide occurrences’), please see the data series on Suicide occurrences, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics. In addition, more timely information on death by suspected suicide can be found in the Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance (RTSSS) Annual Report: Deaths by suspected suicide 2024-25 - Public Health Wales
The Public Health Outcomes Framework is produced on behalf of Welsh Government and was developed in the context of other national strategies and frameworks that seek to inspire and inform action to improve the health of the nation. In particular, it underpins the national indicators for the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, by providing a more detailed range of measures that reflect the wider determinants that influence health and well-being.
https://publichealthwales.shinyapps.io/PHOF_Dashboard_Eng/