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 May 2022, there were 45,526 deaths registered in England, 6,135 deaths (15.6%) above the May five-year average (2016 to 2019, and 2021); there were 2,992 deaths registered in Wales, 329 deaths (12.4%) above the May 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 May 2022 there were 5,873 more deaths (14.8%) in England, and 305 more deaths (11.4%) in Wales.

• The leading cause of death in England in May 2022 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (11.0% of all deaths); in Wales, the leading cause was ischaemic heart diseases (11.0% of all deaths); these are the same causes as April 2022.

• Coronavirus (COVID-19) was the sixth leading cause of death in May 2022 for both England (accounting for 3.3% of all deaths) and Wales (3.3% of all deaths); it was the third leading cause in April 2022.

• The proportion of deaths due to COVID-19 (of all deaths that involved COVID-19) decreased between April and May 2022 in England (from 64.2% to 63.1%) but increased in Wales (from 65.1% to 66.7%).

• Accounting for the population size and age structure, the age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR) for deaths due to COVID-19 decreased significantly between April and May 2022 in England (from 56.0 to 31.3 deaths per 100,000 people) and Wales (from 58.4 to 33.3 deaths per 100,000 people).

• The year-to-date (January to May) ASMR in 2022, was significantly lower than all years since our time series began in 2001 (except for 2014 and 2019) in both England (971.4 deaths per 100,000 people) and Wales (1,056.4 deaths per 100,000 people).

• The North East was the English region with the highest ASMR for deaths due to COVID-19 in May 2022 (36.4 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.