If you are looking for the latest data on deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19) registered in England and Wales, please see our weekly provisional deaths dataset.

Main points from latest release

The key points from this release are:

• In April 2022, there were 42,944 deaths registered in England, 2,200 deaths (5.4%) above the April five-year average (2016 to 2019, and 2021); there were 2,894 deaths registered in Wales, 113 deaths (4.1%) above the April average.

• Compared with the 2015 to 2019 five-year average (as opposed to the new five-year average used in the previous main point), in April 2022 there were 1,522 more deaths (3.7%) in England, and 67 more deaths (2.4%) in Wales.

• The leading cause of death in England in April 2022 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (10.9% of all deaths); in Wales, the leading cause was ischaemic heart diseases (12.6% of all deaths); these are the same causes as March 2022.

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) was the third leading cause of death in April 2022 for both England (accounting for 6.1% of all deaths) and Wales (5.7% of all deaths); it was the sixth leading cause in March 2022.

• The proportion of deaths due to COVID-19 (of all deaths that involved COVID-19) increased between March and April 2022 in England (from 63.0% to 64.2%) and Wales (from 64.3% to 65.1%).

• Accounting for the population size and age structure, the age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) for deaths due to COVID-19 increased significantly between March and April 2022 in England (from 40.7 to 56.0 deaths per 100,000 people); the ASMR in Wales also increased but was not statistically significant (from 45.3 to 58.4 deaths per 100,000 people).

• The year-to-date (January to April) ASMR in 2022, in England, was significantly lower than all years since our time series began in 2001 (978.8 deaths per 100,000 people); in Wales, it was the lowest since 2014, but this difference was not statistically significant (1,067.5 deaths per 100,000 people).

• Yorkshire and the Humber continued to be the English region with the highest ASMR for deaths due to COVID-19 in April 2022 (66.7 deaths per 100,000 people).

Notes

These figures are presented by regions (within England), unitary authorities, counties, districts and London boroughs.

Weekly deaths counts cannot be summed to match the counts for monthly deaths as some weeks may span more than one month.

For information on data quality, legislation and procedures relating to mortality statistics, please see our User guide to mortality statistics.

There is an interactive mapping tool that enables trends in mortality to be analysed at the local level.

For mortality data for other UK countries, please see statistics on deaths in Scotland and statistics on deaths in Northern Ireland.