Mortality data for scleroderma derived from death certificates from England and Wales for the years 1968-1985 were analysed. The overall crude mortalities were 0.9 and 3.8 per million per year in men and women respectively, which are similar to comparable data from the United States. There has been a small but statistically significant increase in mortality of 3% a year over this period, possibly reflecting an underlying increasing trend in incidence. Such analyses are subject to the limitation of the accuracy of death certificates, but in a disease as rare as scleroderma the death rates provide useful data on the trends in occurrence and death from this disease.