Public health · Islands Observatory

02 · Public health — avoidable mortality, 2001–2024

Public lensAvoidable mortality counts deaths of people under 75 from causes that prevention (screening, smoking, alcohol policy) or timely treatment should have stopped. It is the single best "is my health system working?" number that all nine jurisdictions publish. Lower is better. Press ▶ Loop to tour each island's story.

Politician lensThe chart shows two decades of comparable outcomes. Where your jurisdiction sits above a peer, the question writes itself: what does the peer do that we don't? The panel under the chart generates specific wording. Note the basis caveat before quoting numbers across islands.

Management lensPreventable vs treatable decomposition (below) tells you where to act: high preventable points at population health programmes; high treatable at access, diagnosis and pathway speed — including off-island pathway friction. Shetland is the Scottish-boards benchmark; Jersey the overall one.

All jurisdictions · avoidable deaths per 100,000 under-75s ⓘ read this first

Press ▶ Loop to walk through each island's two-decade story, or click a legend entry to isolate a series.

Latest rates — hover for trend

Preventable vs treatable — where the avoidable deaths come from

Preventable = public-health failure space (smoking, alcohol, obesity, injuries, screening-preventable cancers). Treatable = healthcare failure space (conditions timely, effective care should not let become fatal). Periods differ — see labels.

Population health scorecard — the numbers every public-health system watches

Public lensSix headline measures of whether people live long, healthy lives. Where a cell shows a chip instead of a number, that island has not published the measure (red) or we have not yet extracted it (blue) — the gaps are findings too.If you or someone you know is struggling, Samaritans are on 116 123 (IoM: Lifeline 0808 808 8000).

Politician lensTwo asks per blue chip: publish the measure routinely, and to a comparable definition. Healthy life expectancy is the sharpest gap — IoM and Jersey publish life expectancy but no healthy-years measure at all.

Management lensSuicide rates use different windows (single-year vs 3-yr rolling) and different standards of proof — never quote across islands without the basis. The Scottish boards have the fullest published set (ScotPHO / PHS / NRS) — worth borrowing.

Demography — old-age dependency, the number behind every other number

Methodology & data governance notes

Sources. Every displayed figure carries a source string (document + date) reachable by hover, tap or inline chip. The consolidated data layer (observatory_data.js) is generated by script from extraction CSVs in the observatory library; nothing is hand-typed into pages. Primary sources: government/board annual reports and accounts, Audit Scotland/KPMG annual audits, HIS inspection reports, C&AG/JAO reports, DHSC Assessments of Manx Care, Tynwald Hansard and written answers, ONS/NRS/PHS statistics, CAA punctuality statistics, and FOI responses held in the library.

Comparability. Jurisdictions differ in definitions, targets, reporting windows and population bases. Basis lines are mandatory on comparison rows; 3-year rolling averages (small populations) are marked and never silently mixed with single-year rates; derived figures (per-capita, per-1,000, inversions) are labelled derived; DERIVED Sankey nodes state their derivation.

Gaps. Missing data is displayed, not hidden: red chips = no comparable public figure exists; blue chips = published somewhere we have not yet extracted (each maps to a roadmap item). Gaps are findings.

Views. The Public view uses plain language and does not draft formal requests; Politician and Management views expose question/FOI wording and benchmark framing. The view switch changes emphasis, never the underlying numbers.

Corrections. Errors: observatory@coalfinch.com. Build log and change history: see the Roadmap page.