Register a death

How to register a death

You do not need to attend the Registration Office to register a death. 

Following a death, the doctor or hospital will forward a Medical Certificate of Cause of Death electronically to the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRONI), who will forward it to the registration office which covers the deceased’s home address.

The doctor who signed the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death may have passed your contact details to us. If they have, we will contact you to organise the registration of the death. If you need to fill in a death registration form, these are available to download from the nidirect website (link opens in new window).

To talk to us about this process, call our Registration Office on 028 9027 0455 at the following times:

Information you will need

You will need to know:

• full name, surname and address of the deceased
• date and place of death (and birth)
• marital status
• occupation of the deceased
• the full name and occupation of the spouse or partner (if the deceased was married, in a civil partnership or widowed)
• maiden surname (if the deceased was a woman who was married)
• the full names and occupation of the father, or where the parents are not married, the full name and occupation of the mother (if the deceased was a child)
• the name and practice address of the deceased's doctor.

The nidirect website has information about what to do if a death is referred to the Coroner or if someone dies abroad (link opens in new window). 

Who can register a death

Any of the following can register the death.

• Any relative of the deceased who has knowledge of the details needed to register.
• A person present at the death.
• A person taking care of the funeral arrangements.
• The executor or administrator of the deceased's estate.
• The governor, matron or chief officer of a public building where the death occurred.
• A person living in and responsible for a house, lodgings or apartments where the death occurred.
• A person finding, or taking charge of, the body.

What you will receive

Once the death has been registered, the registrar will issue a Certificate for Burial or Cremation to the funeral director so they can proceed with the burial or cremation.

You can buy a death certificate at the time of registration for £8 per copy. These will be posted to you. 

After the registration, you can order copies of a death certificate online (link opens in new window) from the nidirect website. These are £15 for the first copy and £8 for each additional copy bought at the same time.

Certificates for new registrations can be produced with headings in Irish or bi-lingual English and Irish. Read more about this on the nidirect website (link opens in new window).