Miscarriage numbers

There’s a lot of uncertainty around the how many miscarriages and pregnancy losses occur. Unlike stillbirths and neonatal deaths, miscarriages are not officially recorded in the UK or the Devolved Nations.

Currently, people use different statistics around miscarriage risk. We say that 15 in every 100 pregnancies ends in miscarriage. 

Estimating miscarriage risk

It's difficult to estimate how many miscarriages there are because:

  • Currently, miscarriages are not recorded in a standard way
  • Often, a miscarriage may occur without the person seeking medical care 
  • A miscarriage can occur before the person knows they are pregnant

Instead, we rely on research to come up with the best estimate possible, which is that the overall miscarriage risk is 15% of all pregnancies.

Using NHS data, we estimate that there may have been over 100,000 miscarriages in England during 2021-22 (source: Sands and Tommy's Joint Policy Unit).

Due to the lack of reporting of miscarriages, it is very likely that this underestimates the true number.

 

 

 

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