Bristol had one of the highest rates of deaths (picture: Alamy)

More than 1,700 people, including 51 children, died while experiencing homelessness in the UK in 2025, new research has found.

The 1,720 deaths recorded by the Museum of Homelessness’ Dying Homeless project marked a 6.8% increase on the previous year, and means the total number reported since the study began in 2017 has topped 10,000. The charity described the figure of 10,243 deaths as “devastating”.

The latest research was published today at the same time as data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which reported 974 deaths of people experiencing homelessness were registered in England and Wales in 2025. The ONS recorded 978 deaths in 2024.

Those official totals are significantly lower than the number of deaths reported by the Museum of Homelessness, which found 1,297 people experiencing homelessness died in England (1,235, an 8% rise) and Wales (62, a 31% fall) during 2025.

The charity also said 232 people had died in Scotland, an increase of 38% on the previous year, and 191 in Northern Ireland, a rise of 10%.

It documented 286 deaths in London during 2025, 56 in Edinburgh, 55 in Bristol, 45 in Liverpool, 36 in Glasgow and 35 in Manchester.

More than 30% of all deaths recorded in 2025 by the Museum of Homelessness occurred either on the streets or in short-term accommodation intended for people who had recently slept rough, despite rough sleeping accounting for less than 3% of the overall homeless population.

Jess Turtle, a director of the Museum of Homelessness, said: “Our investigation reveals a nationwide scandal that we already see all too often in our day-to-day work on the frontline in London.

“People are placed in unsafe, pay-per-night accommodation without support and left to fall through the gaps. We are pleased to see the motivation to tackle homelessness and investment in community solutions coming out of government, [but] it must create high-quality settings with relationships and consistent wraparound support to support healing,” she said.

The charity said at least 214 people had died during 2025 while sleeping rough or with no fixed abode, adding that it had found some people were remaining on the streets rather than going into emergency ‘sit-up’ accommodation (where they are only provided with a chair or space to sit rather than a bed) or “dangerous” placements.

It found so-called deaths of despair – caused by drugs, alcohol or suicide – accounted for 52% of the people who died in 2025.

The charity said this year’s study presented the “strongest evidence yet” that the official picture was substantially incomplete. “We identified significant gaps in local authority recording, major inconsistencies in reporting practices and substantial evidence that many deaths are invisible or ignored by local authorities,” it said.

As well as sending Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to councils and other public bodies, the Museum of Homelessness gathers information about deaths via memorial services, bereaved families, frontline homelessness workers and local media reports.

It identified 197 deaths – more than 10% of the overall total – outside local authority reporting mechanisms. Just seven of the 51 children reported as dying – all of whom were in temporary accommodation – were known through local authority homelessness reporting routes, the charity said.

It added that 15% of authorities failed to respond to its FOI requests or said they did not hold the data requested, including at large councils in Wales such as Newport and Bridgend, potentially influencing the fall in recorded Welsh deaths. Other major local authorities with large rough-sleeping populations such as Sheffield, Nottingham, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets recorded zero or one deaths, which Gill Taylor, strategic lead for the Dying Homeless project, said was “highly unlikely”.

The Museum of Homelessness has managed the Dying Homeless project since 2019, after taking it over from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, which had set it up two years earlier.

Commenting on both the Museum of Homelessness and ONS reports, Matt Downie, chief executive of homelessness charity Crisis, said they showed “shameful suffering” that was “inexcusable in the 21st century”.

“Behind these statistics are human lives tragically cut short because of homelessness,” Mr Downie said.

“[ONS] figures show the average age of death for someone experiencing homelessness is just 43 for women and 47 for men, decades shorter than the life expectancy of those of us with secure homes.”

He added that the reports showed why Labour’s recent pledges to end rough sleeping were “critical”, but said that “in the longer term, we know homelessness can only truly be ended by providing safe and affordable homes”.

Alex Bax, chief executive of the homelessness and health charity Pathway, said: “Every one of these deaths is an indictment of a health system that is failing people who are forced to sleep on our streets.

“Behind each number is a person who will have faced closed doors and missed opportunities at every turn.”

Mr Bax called on the NHS to “step up and play its part in delivering the prime minister’s commitment to end rough sleeping”.

Lord Bird, the crossbench peer who founded The Big Issue magazine sold by people experiencing homelessness, said the ONS figures showed “the level of national failure which prime minister [Andy Burnham] must now confront”.

He added that he had recently taken Mr Burnham to visit a charity in Bootle offering “holistic, wraparound support” to people who had been sleeping rough long term.

“If the government wants to turn the tide on homelessness deaths, this is the kind of services it must back,” he said.

Sean Palmer, executive director of transformation at St Mungo’s, said the charity’s thoughts are with “everyone who has lost someone whilst they were experiencing homelessness”.

He said the statistics are a “stark reminder of the dangers and health inequalities that people experiencing homelessness, and especially rough sleeping, face every day”.

“This report, rightly, identifies that 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,” Mr Palmer said.

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Annual number of people dying while homeless rises 6.8%