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Independent service run by Suffrago – not an official government website. Every figure comes from an official UK publisher under its open licence and is checked against that source each time the data is refreshed.

Abortions to residents of England and Wales

Abortions to women resident in England and Wales each year since 1968, by who paid for them – the NHS in its own hospitals or in the independent sector, or the woman herself – with the age-standardised rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, from the Department of Health and Social Care's abortion statistics.

Abortions to residents

277,970

2023 · an age-standardised rate of 23.0 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44

Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:23 UTC
Abortions to residents of England and Wales
  • Abortions to residents
  • NHS funded: NHS hospital
  • NHS funded: independent sector
  • Privately funded
0100k200k300k196819781988199820082023

Source: Department of Health and Social Care. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Data table

56 periods, newest first

PeriodAbortions to residentsNHS funded: NHS hospitalNHS funded: independent sectorPrivately funded
2023277,97047,895225,7904,290
2022251,37746,823200,2584,296
2021214,25645,688165,4003,168
2020209,91745,750161,3142,853
2019207,38450,794153,6012,989
2018200,60852,317144,6183,673
2017192,90053,829134,7684,303
2016185,59654,993126,9293,674
2015185,82455,359126,8843,581
2014184,57158,168122,7543,649
2013185,33162,195118,7114,425
2012185,12264,399114,9995,724
2011189,93166,470116,5826,879
2010189,57469,529111,7758,270
2009189,10071,477106,16111,462
2008195,29674,433103,90516,958
2007198,49975,518100,19522,786
2006193,73775,32892,49425,915
2005186,41674,74482,51829,154
2004185,71375,32877,28933,096
2003181,58275,79169,13336,658
2002175,93273,54463,93838,450
2001176,36476,16658,44541,753
2000175,54281,07450,40044,068
1999173,70184,99243,26645,443
1998177,87187,56844,33245,971
1997170,14586,41437,47246,259
1996167,91688,41033,25546,251
1995154,31584,47824,36345,474
1994156,53985,24319,55151,745
1993157,84684,07114,83558,940
1992160,50179,54311,98268,976
1991167,37675,1729,19783,007
1990173,90073,5179,58290,801
1989170,46370,7229,20090,541
1988168,29869,1039,35789,838
1987156,19169,4428,04178,708
1986147,61967,4516,81973,349
1985141,10165,1765,92969,996
1984136,38864,8234,91266,653
1983127,37562,6094,61460,152
1982128,55362,4094,42561,719
1981128,58161,1032,34365,135
1980128,92760,594–68,333
1979120,61155,558–65,053
1978111,85155,040–56,811
1977102,67752,530–50,147
1976101,91250,569–51,343
1975106,22450,941–55,283
1974109,44556,076–53,369
1973110,56855,456–55,112
1972108,56556,861–51,704
197194,57053,455–41,115
197075,96247,370–28,592
196949,82933,562–16,267
196822,33214,492–7,840

Download CSVDownload JSON with full provenance

Source and licence

Publisher
Department of Health and Social Care
Check it yourself
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abortion-statistics-in-england-and-wales
Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Retrieved
8 November 2026, 13:06 UTC
Raw files fetched

Verification

Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:23 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:23 UTC; 224 of 224 figures matched the live source.

ResultCheckDetail
PassProvenance recordedDepartment of Health and Social Care; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:06:31Z; 2 raw file(s)
PassRaw files match recorded SHA-2562 of 2 files intact
PassRe-parsing raw files reproduces figures224 of 224 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and age_standardised_rate match
PassFigures are finite numbers224 figures, 0 invalid
PassLive source matches every figure224 of 224 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation and age_standardised_rate match
PassGOV.UK table is currentlatest period 2023-12-31 ended 1043 days before retrieval (limit 1300), from Data tables for residents of England and Wales: 2023
PassTable 1 adds up112 of 112 cases of the years' purchasers add up to residents and residents and non-residents to all abortions, within each figure's own rounding
PassTable 2 gives Table 1's latest year4 of 4 cases of 2023's residents and purchasers in Table 2 are Table 1's
PassTable 3a gives Table 1's residents11 of 11 cases of Table 3a's years' residents are Table 1's
PassTable 3a's shares are Table 1's33 of 33 cases of Table 3a's shares by purchaser are Table 1's counts, to the whole per cent it gives, within each figure's own rounding
PassSource page answershttps://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abortion-statistics-in-england-and-wales – HTTP 200

Notes

  • Legal abortions to women resident in England and Wales, as Table 1 of the Department of Health and Social Care's abortion statistics gives them, by purchaser: the NHS in its own hospitals, the NHS in the independent sector, whose abortions DHSC counts from 1981, or the woman herself. Abortions to women from outside England and Wales are left out.
  • 1968's figures cover only the eight months from 27 April, when the legislation came into effect. DHSC revised its total for residents in 2004. Its 2023 figures are rounded to the nearest 5, so its purchasers may not add up to the total; the years before are not rounded.
  • The headline's rate is DHSC's age-standardised rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population; it counts abortions to women of all ages.