2019 to 2020 Covid-19 UK deaths

FOI Reference: FOI/2021/2999

You asked

Would you be so kind as to supply the following information please?

1. During each of the years 2019 and 2020 how many people in the UK died?
2. During each of the years 2019 and 2020 how many people in the UK died within 28 days of a positive Covid test?
3. During each of the years 2019 and 2020 how many people in the UK died who had Covid-19 mentioned on their death certificates?
4. During each of the years 2019 and 2020 how many people in the UK died of Covid-19 with no underlying or accompanying conditions?

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. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

However, as part of a collaboration with the devolved administrations, we do provide headline figures for the UK as part of our Vital Statistics in the UK publication. The latest data available in this publication is 2019. This publication is scheduled to be updated with 2020 data in December 2021.

2020 data

Using the Deaths Registered in England and Wales publication, there have been 607,922 deaths registered in 2020. 569,700 in England and 37,399 in Wales.

Year-end figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland can be found below.

• Scotland - Vital Events Reference Tables 2020

• NISRA - Monthly deaths

COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of positive test 2019/2020

ONS and UK Health Security Agency COVID-19 deaths data are produced in different ways and have different purposes:

• the daily COVID deaths counts reported on the government's COVID-19 dashboard (produced by UKHSA) shows deaths within 28 days of a first positive laboratory-confirmed test.

• ONS weekly death registrations data for England and Wales, relate to the week that ended 11 days prior and are based on the cause of death reported on the death certificate, thereby not restricted to only deaths that showed a positive test.

More information can be found in a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.

There are no deaths registered in 2019 due to COVID-19.

For England and Wales data in 2020, we hold the following analysis Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales: 2020

In England and Wales there were 73,766 deaths registered due to COVID-19.  

Deaths involving COVID-19 in 2019/2020.

There are no deaths registered with COVID-19 in 2019 in England and Wales.

In 2020, there were 81,795 deaths registered as involving COVID-19 and 73,766 deaths registered as due to COVID-19.

We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths with an underlying cause of death as COVID-19 and we use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.

Information on cause of death coding is available in the User Guide to Mortality Statistics.

Deaths involving COVID-19 with no pre-existing conditions

We hold the following analysis Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales.

For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.