This note continues an annual series on mortality rates in Great Britain; the previous note in the series appeared in J.I.A. 109, 447 and dealt with mortality in 1980. Table 1, below, shows central death-rates for Great Britain for the year 1981, together with the ratios of these rates to the corresponding average rates for the 3 years 1970–72, which have been taken as a standard. Death rates in this form for the years from 1966 to 1979 were published in J.I.A. 108, 413. The rates for 1981 have been calculated using the deaths recorded as occurring in Great Britain in 1981 and the ‘home’ population at 30 June 1981, i.e. the number of people actually in the country at the time, as estimated by the Registrars General of England and Wales and of Scotland.