You asked
I would be grateful if you could provide the following statistics for 2018, 2019 and 2020 for the UK as a whole where the leading cause of death was:
- Total number of deaths from respiratory disease
- Total number of deaths from pneumonia
- Total number of deaths from heart disease
- Total number of deaths from Dementia
- Total number of deaths from Alzheimer's Disease
- Total number of deaths from influenza
- Total number of deaths from COVID-19 (applies to 2020 only)
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to deaths broken down by specific cause in Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Deaths by cause 2013 to 2019 for England and Wales:
Our NOMIS webservice provides annual data by cause for the years 2013 to 2019.
The following ICD-10 codes should be used for your specified cause groups:
Mental and behavioural disorders: F00-F99
- Total number of deaths from Alzheimer's Disease: F00
- Total number of deaths from Dementia: F01-F03
Diseases of the circulatory system: I00-I99
- Total number of deaths from heart disease: I20-I25 (Other heart diseases fall under several different ICD-10 codes, you would need to specify which heart diseases you are looking at and identify the code).
Diseases of the respiratory system: J00-J99
- Total number of deaths from influenza: J09-J11
- Total number of deaths from pneumonia: J12-J18
Please see the following instructions for using our NOMIS webservice:
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age - All ages or 5-year age bands.
- Select Gender - Total or Male/Female
- Select rates - All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Similarly, our Deaths Registered Series publications provide an annual breakdown of selected causes and leading causes. Data is available from 2012 to 2019. Please see the following datasets accompanying this series:
Deaths registered in England and Wales -- 21st Century mortality: Annual data on the number of deaths registered in England and Wales by age group, sex, year and underlying cause of death, as defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision.
Deaths registered series (dataset): Annual data on deaths registered by age, sex and selected underlying cause of death. Tables also provide both mortality rates and numbers of deaths over time.
2020 mortality data for England and Wales will be available in our Deaths Registered Series and on our NOMIS webservice once the data have been finalised in the summer of 2021.
However, we have analysed and published the following provisional data for 2020 which may be of use to you:
Influenza and Pneumonia / COVID-19
Figure 2 of our deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths from 2020 up to 22January due to Influenza and Pneumonia and the number of deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia.
"Due to" refers only to deaths where Influenza and Pneumonia was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had Influenza and Pneumonia mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2 for these statistics.
This figure also contains weekly figures deaths due to and involving COVID-19. I have summed the weekly totals for you for you:
- Deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying or secondary cause): 127,575
- Deaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying cause): 21,614
Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 up to week ending 22nd January 2021:
- Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or secondary cause): 102,554
- Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 92,913
Leading causes of death 2020
We have been producing Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales in the response to COVID-19. This publication provides a greater insight into the leading underlying causes of death groups for deaths occurring in England and Wales between March and June 2020. Leading causes can be found in table 1.
Provisional monthly death registration data for England and Wales, broken down by sex, age and country are now available in this monthly publication: Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales. This publication contains data from July onwards and includes deaths due to COVID-19 and leading causes of death. Leading causes in England are also available on table 11a and 11b, also including figures for the five-year average.
We are no longer publishing monthly COVID-19 deaths with details around the death such as pre-existing conditions or no underlying cause. The number of deaths in some areas of the data can become very small and poses a disclosure risk, making it entirely possible to identify individual records. Due to the increase in the number of COVID-19 we are assessing how to resume this dataset safely, although there is no confirmed publishing date.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.