Total deaths and influneza deaths in the UK in 2018, 2019 and 2020

Release date:
24 February 2021

You asked

Please can you provide me with the overall total number of deaths from any cause in the UK for the years 2018, 2019, 2020?

Also please provide the totals in UK for Flu related deaths for the same years?

We said

Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, any questions regarding Scotland and Northern Ireland data show be made to these organisations at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

We publish finalised headline annual figures for the UK within our Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages. The latest data available in the publication is 2019.

YearUnited KingdomEngland and WalesEnglandWalesScotlandNorthern Ireland
2019604,707530,841496,37033,18358,10815,758
2018616,014541,589505,85934,40658,50315,922

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.xls .csv

Total deaths for 2020 will be finalised in July 2021 with the publication of our Deaths Registered Series. This is to allow time for late registrations such as deaths referred to Coroner's Inquest to be included.

Whilst the data has not yet been finalised for 2020, all three statistical agencies have published a blog with provisional year-end figures from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020:

England and Wales - https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/

Scotland - https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/annual-deaths-excess-deaths-1855-2020.xlsx

Northern Ireland - https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/monthly-deaths

The following table has been created from the links above:

YearUnited KingdomEngland and WalesScotlandNorthern Ireland
2020 (provisional)689,700608,00264,08517,613

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.xls .csv

Influenza deaths in 2018, 2019 and 2020:

We do not hold the number of deaths from influenza in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Please contact NRS and NIRSA for this information.

However, deaths involving influenza for England and Wales are available from 2013 up to 2019 on our NOMIS Webservice using ICD-10 code J09-J11.

Influenza:

DateTotal mortalityEnglandWalesEngland and WalesResident outside England and Wales
20181,5981,523731,5962
20191,2231,160531,21310

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.xls .csv

Influenza and pneumonia:

Country20182019
Total mortality29,51626,398
England27,14224,400
Wales2,3091,942
England and Wales29,45126,342
Resident outside England and Wales6556

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.xls .csv

Influenza and pneumonia deaths for 2020 are available weekly in the following publication: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending 1 January 2021. Please see the downloadable datafile beneath Figure 2 of this publication to view this data. We have also provided the following table taken from this dataset.

Week no.Deaths involving Influenza and PneumoniaDeaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia
Week 1 2,596 821
Week 2 2,994 931
Week 3 2,687 809
Week 4 2,426 716
Week 5 2,268 648
Week 6 2,045 536
Week 7 1,979 528
Week 8 1,996 563
Week 9 1,948 562
Week 10 1,909 510
Week 11 1,962 532
Week 12 1,941 580
Week 13 2,190 571
Week 14 3,898 702
Week 15 4,418 611
Week 16 5,215 541
Week 17 4,727 480
Week 18 3,619 400
Week 19 2,374 278
Week 20 2,688 314
Week 21 2,063 299
Week 22 1,679 251
Week 23 1,721 312
Week 24 1,520 250
Week 25 1,392 278
Week 26 1,248 233
Week 27 1,295 269
Week 28 1,175 227
Week 29 1,104 207
Week 30 1,116 244
Week 31 1,088 219
Week 32 1,094 237
Week 33 1,151 255
Week 34 1,310 292
Week 35 1,163 231
Week 36 969 215
Week 37 1,257 283
Week 38 1,250 291
Week 39 1,305 266
Week 40 1,341 287
Week 41 1,425 311
Week 42 1,619 337
Week 43 1,719 302
Week 44 1,922 289
Week 45 2,267 307
Week 46 2,537 291
Week 47 2,605 280
Week 48 2,693 285
Week 49 2,619 267
Week 50 2,598 320
Week 51 2,760 298
Week 52 2,578 270
Week 53 2,494 187

Source: Office for National Statistics – Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales

Notes

  1. Figures include deaths of non-residents.
  2. Based on date a death was registered rather than occurred.
  3. All figures for 2020 and 2021 are provisional.
  4. The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) definitions are as follows: coronavirus (COVID-19) (U07.1 and U07.2) and Influenza and Pneumonia (J09-J18).
  5. A death can be registered with both COVID-19 and Influenza and Pneumonia mentioned on the death certificate. Deaths where both were mentioned have been counted in both categories.
  6. We use the term "due to COVID-19" or "due to Influenza and Pneumonia" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" or "involving Influenza and Pneumonia" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
  7. The number of deaths registered in Weeks 19, 20, 22, 23, 36, 37, 52 and 53 were affected by the Early May, Late May, August, Christmas and New Year Bank Holidays (Friday 8 May 2020, Monday 25 May 2020, Monday 31 August 2020, Friday 25 December 2020, Monday 28 December 2020, Friday 1 January 2021); the impact of the Early May Bank Holiday was analysed in our Week 20 bulletin. (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending15may2020#deaths-registered-by-week).
  8. The Week 52 five-year average is used to compare against Week 53 deaths.

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.xls .csv

Figures for the total number of deaths from influenzas in England and Wales will be provided in our annual Deaths Registered Series publication once the data have been finalised in the summer of 2021.

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