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 August 2022, there were 44,381 deaths registered in England, 6,245 deaths (16.4%) above the August five-year average (2016 to 2019, and 2021); there were 2,931 deaths registered in Wales, 368 deaths (14.4%) above the August average.
  
• The leading cause of death in England and in Wales in August 2022 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (11.4% of all deaths in England and 11.6% of all deaths in Wales).
  
• Coronavirus (COVID-19) remained the sixth leading cause of death in August 2022 in England (accounting for 3.3% of all deaths), but fell to the seventh leading cause of death in Wales (3.0% of all deaths), from the sixth leading cause in July 2022.
  
• Accounting for the population size and age structure, the age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) for deaths due to COVID-19 decreased between July and August 2022 in England (from 32.6 to 30.5 deaths per 100,000 people) and Wales (from 36.1 to 29.6 deaths per 100,000 people), but this was not statistically significant.
  
• The year-to-date (January to August) ASMR in 2022 in both England (940.6 deaths per 100,000 people) and Wales (1,015.7 deaths per 100,000 people) was significantly lower than most years since our data time series began in 2001.
  
• There were three heat-periods in August 2022, which were associated with higher daily death occurrences than other days in August 2022 (24.1% higher for England and 17.7% higher for Wales).

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.