This category includes deaths due to drugs, alcohol and mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

This cause accounts for one in a hundred of all deaths. More females than males die from mental disorders (58% compared with 42%) and the average age at death is 71.7.

Which deaths should get recorded as being due to mental disorder is unclear; for example deaths due to alcohol can either be recorded as ‘alcoholism’ (a mental disorder) or in the category of physical morbidity (for example liver cirrhosis).

Scotland’s recording of higher rates of death from these causes compared with most of England and Wales may be influenced in part by differences in the way suspected causes of death are initially recorded in that country, but as we have said before, this will only account for a small part of the differences seen north and south of that national border. By looking at the shading of neighbourhoods lying directly either side of that border it is possible to see that there is not a huge disjuncture there.

High rates of death from mental disorder follow a pattern similar to that seen for suicide, with higher rates in cities such as London, and similar causes are likely to be at play. Low rates are found in better-off cities, especially in the south.