You asked
Please can provide the following information.
As of the 28th of July (Today's date), based on previous years, can you provide the figures for total deaths each year (total annually) for the last 5 years, deaths as percentages and the main causes of deaths in the UK.
Based on the above data, how does Covid compare with the same death record over the previous 5 year period?
I am trying to work out if covid is having causing a larger influx of deaths in the UK or if the deaths vs covid would be on a like for like basis, if its greater by how much as a % than we would typically expect over the same year period for the 5 year period before If that makes sense.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with the exact information you have requested. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create bespoke analysis for you. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, we can provide the following information relating to your request.
The latest provisional mortality data for 2020 are available in the following publication: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending 7 August 2020. The excel reference tables that accompany the bulletin are available here. Please see the most recent excel reference tables. The worksheet labelled 'Weekly Figures 2020' provides a comparison of 2020 deaths to the 5-year average on a weekly basis. This worksheet also provides the number of deaths from respiratory illness compared to deaths from COVID-19.
Please also see the following link, which shows a number of publications with 5-year average comparisons of mortality data, which may be of interest to you: 5-year Average Mortality Publications.
Weekly deaths for earlier years in the same format are available here. Please note, numbers were provisional at the time of production and we do not update these figures.
Finalised death registrations by cause, up to 2019 (the latest year available), can be obtained from NOMIS, the Deaths Registered Series and 21st Century Mortality. As COVID-19 was not recorded as a cause of death until 2020, unfortunately there are no COVID-19 death figures available on NOMIS to compare to for previous years.
We have produced additional UK level analysis of COVID-19 related deaths. This can be accessed via the following publication: Deaths involving COVID-19 in the UK.