Lives are being ‘tragically cut short’ due to homelessness. These are the numbers you need to know

Some 974 people died while homeless in England and Wales in 2025, the Office for National Statistics has reported – but a separate grassroots count suggests the actual tally could be far higher.

People experiencing homelessness are especially vulnerable to poor physical and mental health, and are more likely to die early or avoidably.

This week, two separate sets of figures have revealed the scale of this national tragedy.

According to the ONS, some 974 people died while experiencing homelessness last year – an increase of 77.1% on 2013, when 550 people died. This is slightly lower than in 2024, when 978 people experiencing homelessness died.

The average age at death was 43.2 for women and 47.3 for men. Among all people aged 15 to 74 – the age group covered by the ONS data set – the mean age at death was 62.1 for women and 61.1 for men.

“Behind these statistics are human lives tragically cut short because of homelessness,” said Matt Downie, chief executive of Crisis.

The ONS official figure comes the same day the Museum of Homelessness released its annual Dying Homeless project. This tally found that 1,720 people died while homeless in 2025.

This grassroots count includes people in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but that does not wholly account for the difference with the official figures.

According to MOH, 1,235 people died in England alone, well above the ONS figure of 911. Big Issue has broken down the figures in the MOH tally here.

More than 30% of the deaths recorded by MOH occurred either on the streets or in short-term accommodation intended for people who had recently slept rough.

Sean Palmer, executive director of transformation at St Mungo’s, said the “statistics from the Museum of Homelessness are a stark reminder of the dangers and health inequalities that people experiencing homelessness, and especially rough sleeping, face every day”.

“There is more to be done to ensure that health services are equipped to support people experiencing homelessness and that those services are properly integrated so that people get the support they need.  We desperately need to end this ongoing tragedy,” he added.

Prime minister Andy Burnham has announced efforts to end rough sleeping, including a pledge to offer all rough sleepers in England a route off the streets by Christmas.

Downie said today’s harrowing ONS figures proved the necessity of such a policy.

“With people dying prematurely right now, this vital action will save lives, and we welcome the commitment to making it a permanent national policy, beyond Christmas, because people need a roof over their heads all year round,” he said.

Read more:

• The number of homeless deaths is an entirely preventable tragedy. What are we doing?
• 104 children’s deaths linked to living in temporary accommodation: ‘We should be outraged’
• Why we come together to grieve people who died while homeless

Why are the counts different?

The ONS count uses information recorded when deaths are registered to identify people who were sleeping rough or living in emergency or temporary accommodation. It then uses the data to estimate how many deaths may have been missed.

In 2025, ONS identified 834 deaths directly and estimated another 140, producing the total of 974.

The ONS describes its model as conservative and says the figures should be treated as “lower-bound estimates”, meaning the true number of deaths could be higher.

The official figures have previously faced questions over their accuracy. In 2024, the statistics body considered stopping its annual count of deaths among people experiencing homelessness, citing concerns about the methodology.

It reversed that decision following a furious backlash from homelessness organisations, and said it would instead make changes to improve the data.

The MOH tally is more comprehensive – it is made up of freedom of information requests as well as deaths reported through memorial services, bereaved families, frontline workers and local media reports.

Though it is higher than its official counterpart, the MOH tally is also likely a “significant underestimate.”

Some local authorities failed to respond to requests for information, while others clearly underreported the issue.

“We fear that the true scale is much higher than local authorities are telling us,” said Gill Taylor, MOH’s strategic lead for the project.

Why do the ONS figures still matter?

The ONS figures may be an underestimate, but they are still a useful indication of how and where people experiencing homelessness are dying.

In England, an estimated 911 deaths of people experiencing homelessness were registered in 2025.

London had the highest deaths among English regions (151), followed by the North West (146) and the South East (144).

The North East had the lowest deaths among English regions (40). In Wales, an estimated 63 deaths of people experiencing homelessness were registered in 2025.

Men made up the vast majority of the tally (85.5%). Accidents were the largest underlying-cause group for people experiencing homelessness in every year between 2013 and 2025, with an estimated 380 deaths in 2025 (39%).

There were an estimated 304 drug-poisoning deaths in 2025 (31.2% of all estimated deaths), compared with 335 in 2024.

Behind every statistic is a person, said Alex Bax, CEO of the homelessness and health charity Pathway.

“Every one of these deaths is an indictment of a health system that is failing people who are forced to sleep on our streets,” he warned. “Behind each number is a person who will have faced closed doors and missed opportunities at every turn.”

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