This shows standardised asthma mortality ratios (SMRs), with 95% confidence intervals, for the 0-44 and 45-84 age-groups for 1991-95 by region and country. The SMRs have been ordered by the value for the older age-group. The vertical line at 100 shows how the regions compare with the standard, which was taken to be England & Wales.

In the older age-group, Scotland and South Thames had the lowest SMRs. The 95% confidence intervals do not include100, indicating that they are statistically signicantly lower than 100. In contrast, the lowest SMRs in the younger age-group were for Trent, West Midlands and Northern Ireland, which all had SMRs over 100 for the older age-group. North West region's SMR for the older age-group was significantly higher than 100.