You asked
FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2576
Please provide overall death figures in the UK, by year, 2015 to 2020 inclusive and 2021 half year. For 2021 kindly state what date they go up to.
Please provide UK population figures, yearly totals, from 2015 to 2020 inc, also approximate for 2021.
Please state figures in the UK on cause of death, from the total yearly figure (or half yearly for 2021).
Please provide the following 3 mortality figures: NON-COVID-19; FROM COVID-19 (without co-morbidities), FROM COVID-19 (with co-morbidities). Kindly state how many of these COVID-19-related deaths where the deceased was never tested for COVID-19 and was just assumed.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Request 1: Please provide overall death figures in the UK, by year, 2015 to 2020 inclusive and 2021 half year. For 2021 kindly state what date they go up to.
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 Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our mortality data are derived from the formal process of death registration. Annual mortality figures can be found in our 'Deaths Registered Series datasets'. Annual totals for your requested years can be found in table 1.
2015 -- 529,655
2016 -- 525,048
- 2017 -- 533,253
- 2018 -- 541,589
- 2019 -- 530,841
2020 -- 607,922
You can find a provisional monthly death totals for England and Wales for 2021 in our monthly deaths dataset. We have totalled the figures up to May:
- 2021 -- 259,744 (so far, provisional)
Request 2: Please provide UK population figures, yearly totals, from 2015 to 2020 inc, also approximate for 2021.
For population estimate timeseries from mid-1971 to mid-2020 in 'table MYE4' of Estimates of the population for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This includes a total breakdown for UK and individual Country. Under 'Mid-2001 to mid-2019 detailed time series', then under 'Supporting files you may find useful', click on 'UK population estimates, 1838 to 2019', then click on 'Table 1 -- Population estimates for UK, mid-1851 to mid-2019'. The data for 2015 to 2019 are shown in the table below:
Source: ONS Mid-year Population Estimates
Please note that the Population estimates for the UK, England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2020, are due to be released on 25 June 2021; see link to our release calendar, which you may find useful.
On 16 April 2021, we released Early indicators of UK population size and age structure. Under 2020, click on and open the xlsx file, you can then select the tab you require; males, females or persons.
Please see the following link to our Principal projection - UK summary. Under 2018 based, click on and open the .xls file. You can then select the tab you require (Males, Females or Persons) within this table to find the projected population data for 2021 for each.
When accessing any of our files please read the 'notes, terms and conditions' contained within them.
Request 3: Please state figures in the UK on cause of death, from the total yearly figure (or half yearly for 2021). Please state 3 figures; NON COVID, FROM COVID (without co-morbidities), FROM COVID (with co-morbidities). Kindly state how many of these covid related deaths where the deceased was never tested for COVID-19 and was just assumed.
Deaths from COVID-19 may include cases where the doctor completing the death certificate diagnosed possible cases of COVID-19, for example, where this was based on relevant symptoms but no test for the virus was conducted. Deaths with a positive test are coded using the ICD10 code U0.71 and those with suspected COVID-19 but no test has been conducted are coded with ICD10 U0.72.
We include these splits for deaths with a positive test and where COVID was suspected (U0.71 & U0.72) in 'table 12' of our monthly mortality analysis for the period between March 2020 to May 2021.
We also hold the following analysis, which provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause of death groups, for deaths occurring in England and Wales, in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 that were due to COVID-19: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19. This dataset can be found in section 8 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin.
Please see 'table 1a, row 28' (2020) and 'table 1a, row 29' (2021) for deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate, England and Wales. Table 1b represents these figures for England and table 1c figures are for Wales.
This publication will be updated quarterly. COVID-19 deaths involving pre-existing conditions is split by broad age groups between 1-64 and 65+. There were a total of **9400** deaths in England and Wales 2020 and **6483** in 2021 that were due to COVID-19 and were recorded without any pre-existing conditions. This publication will also show the number of deaths with comorbidities.
Deaths that are not from COVID-19 can be calculated from the information provided in the following publication: Deaths registered weekly. Deaths in the 'COVID-19 - Weekly registrations' tab can be subtracted from the deaths in the 'Weekly figures 2020/2021' tab to provide the number that did not die from COVID-19 in each week.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.