Cancer most common cause of death in England and Wales

Cancer is the most common cause of death in England and Wales, official figures show.

Some 29% of all deaths in 2014 were due to cancer, data from the Office for National Statistics for England and Wales showed.

Overall, 501,424 people died in 2014, a fall of 1.1% compared with 2013

When data is separated for the sexes, the leading cause of death for men is heart disease while most women die of dementia.

Some 15% of all deaths in men were heart disease, while dementia and Alzheimer's disease accounted for 13% of all female deaths.

A total of 51,498 deaths were caused by dementia and Alzheimer's disease, with 34,321 of these recorded among women.

Hilary Evans, chief executive at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "These latest figures underline a stark reality - with no treatments yet able to affect the course of Alzheimer's and other dementias, no-one currently survives a diagnosis of dementia.

"Diseases like Alzheimer's are causing untold heartache for families across the UK, and these statistics should give us cause to redouble our efforts in the fight against them.

"Advances in medicine have helped reduce the impact of conditions like heart disease; now we must see the same to happen for dementia."