Deaths solely from COVID-19 in the UK and Scotland

You asked

​Please can you provide me with the following information:

1)What is the exact number of people who have died solely OF Covid 19 in the UK since March 2020 - not people who have died WITH Covid?

2) What is the exact number of people who have died solely OF Covid 19 in Scotland since March 2020 - not people who have died WITH Covid?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. We only hold headline figures for deaths involving COVID-19 for the UK as a whole and Scotland. Therefore, we do not hold data showing deaths from COVID-19 only for the UK and Scottish data requested.

National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

However, you may find the following information for England and Wales useful:

We have been producing Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19, deaths registered in 2020. This dataset can be found in section 7 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading underlying causes of death groups for deaths occurring in England and Wales in 2020 and will be updated quarterly. Please see 'table 1a, row 28' for quarterly deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate. COVID-19 deaths involving pre-existing conditions are split by broad age groups between 1-64 and 65+.

You may also be interested in Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales publication, using the download the data option, we publish deaths 'due to' COVID-9 and deaths 'involving COVID-19' for England and Wales.

We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

I have provided the summed total from March 2020 to 5 March 2021, which is the latest available data.

For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.