Deaths in the UK where COVID-19 was the primary cause of death

You asked

​I would like number of people who died of COVID-19 in the UK. Not with COVID-19 but where it was the primary cause of death.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Please note, ONS data are different from the figures on COVID-19 deaths published on the government's COVID-19 dashboard which shows 'deaths within 28 days of a positive test'. You can read a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.

The requested data for England and Wales can be found in Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin. This shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 with "due to" referring only to deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2 to view this data in a spreadsheet.

Here are the summed totals for COVID-19 from 3 January 2020 to week ending 23 April 2021

•       Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or contributory cause): 137,680

•       Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 123,239