There were probably more than 300,000 abortions in the UK in 2024, up from our conservative projection of 292,000 in 2023. This projection is based on official published data in Scotland and Northern Ireland for 2023 and annual reports published by BPAS and MSI-RC for the same year. The last set of official data for England and Wales is for 2022, published in December 2024, some eighteen months later than the previously expected publication date of June 2023; we still do not know when the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities will publish the 2023 data.
I posted an update with the latest data available in August 2025, which confirms the earlier projections I made here.
In May 2024, Public Health Scotland published abortion statistics for 2023; there was a year-on-year increase of 10% from 16,607 in 2022 to 18,207.[i]
At the end of January 2025, the Department of Health in Northern Ireland published abortions data for the year 2023/24. There was a 28% increase from 2,168 in 2022/23 to 2,792 in 2023/24.[ii]
In recent years, BPAS and MSI-RC have provided at least two-thirds of all NHS abortions in England and Wales. In its 2023 Annual Report, MSI-RC states: “In 2023, our teams across England supported over 94,000 people to access abortion care—26% more than the previous year.” [iii] This needs to be considered in the context of a small decline in the BPAS numbers, from 110,719 in 2022/23 to 106,424 in 2023/24, published in its own annual reports.[iv] It is likely that some of the increase at MSI-RC is a result of the transfer of some NHS contracts to it from BPAS.
When we combine these two sets of data (BPAS + MSI-RC) we find a year-on-year increase of 8% in 2023, and based on this we have projected a total increase of 8% in all NHS abortions provided to residents in England and Wales during 2023, resulting in a projected total of 271,000, up from the official total of 251,377 in 2022.[v]
Data up to the end of 2022 are official and published. 2023 data have been published for Scotland, Northern Ireland, BPAS, and MSI-RC, constituting about 75% of all abortions in 2023, and so we can conservatively project the balance from NHS E&W based on these published year-on-year increases. The official 2022 total for the UK is 270,324 and our projection for 2023 is 292,000. It is reasonable to assume a continued small increase in 2024, needing just an additional 3% to bring the last year’s total to over 300,000.
[i] Public Health Scotland. (n.d.). Termination of pregnancy statistics – Year ending December 2023 – Termination of pregnancy statistics – Publications – Public Health Scotland. https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/termination-of-pregnancy-statistics/termination-of-pregnancy-statistics-year-ending-december-2023/
[ii] Northern Ireland abortion statistics publication 2023/24. (2025, January 30). Department of Health. https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/news/northern-ireland-abortion-statistics-publication-202324
[iii] Riach, E. (2024, July 15). Annual Report & Financial Statements 2023. MSI Reproductive Choices. https://www.msichoices.org/latest/annual-report-financial-statements-2023/
[iv] Moore, L., & Stewart, H. (2023). ANNUAL QUALITY REPORT 2023/24. https://www.bpas.org/media/fizl2o2b/quality-report-2023-24.pdf
[v] Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2022. (2024, December 18). GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2022/abortion-statistics-england-and-wales-2022
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