Ref: FOI/2024/1765
You asked
The Office for National Statistics released data relating to deaths solely from COVID-19 (as opposed to with COVID-19) from February 2020 to December 2021. Please provide an updated version of this from February 2020 to December 2022.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We hold the following analysis Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales which will provide data for 2020 and 2021, including total deaths due to and involving COVID-19 by age group.
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. This publication is now discontinued and has not been published for deaths registered in 2022.
However you can find deaths due to COVID-19 for 2022 in the following publication:
Deaths registered in England and Wales
Alternatively, the Interactive Webservice NOMIS provides death registrations by underlying cause of death using ICD-10 code, age group, sex, and selected geographies.
The ICD-10 codes for COVID-19 are.
U07.1 COVID-19, virus identified.
U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified.
U09.9 post-COVID condition, unspecified
U10.9 Multisystem inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19, unspecified.
To use NOMIS:
Select Query Data
Select Life Events
Select Mortality Statistics
Select period – 2013 to 2022.
Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
Select Age – All ages or 5-year age bands.
Select Gender – Total or Male/Female
Select rates – All deaths, rates, or percentage of population for example. - Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
COVID-19 with pre-existing conditions
Health conditions are recorded on the death certificate only if the certifying doctor or coroner believed they made some contribution to the death, direct or indirect. The death certificate does not include all health conditions from which the deceased might have suffered if they were not considered relevant. The death certificate (Annex A (PDF, 224KB)) used in England and Wales is compatible with that recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). It is set out in two parts. Part I gives the condition or sequence of conditions leading directly to death, while Part II gives details of any associated conditions that contributed to the death but are not part of the causal sequence.
We recommend using our pre-existing conditions methodology to answer this question as it removes any conditions caused by the underlying cause of death.
We define pre-existing conditions as those mentioned in Part 2 of the medical certificate of cause of death. If COVID-19 is mentioned in Part 1 on lines above other conditions also mentioned in Part 1, the last condition mentioned in Part 1 is also considered a pre-existing condition. We don't know exactly how many people who died from COVID-19 had no pre-existing health conditions, only how many did not have a pre-existing condition mentioned on the death certificate. A contributor to the cause of death is expected to have increased the likelihood of death, but this does not mean that the death would have been avoided in its absence.
We hold analysis showing deaths due to COVID-19 with no pre-existing conditions by broad age-band in England and Wales in the following publication: Pre-existing conditions of people who died due to COVID-19, England and Wales. This publication is now discontinued.
Sheet 1 shows quarterly data relating to the number and proportion of death certificates where the death was due to COVID-19 that had a top 20 (by frequency) pre-existing condition, by broad age and pre-existing condition.
Sheet 2 shows quarterly data relating to the number of and average number of pre-existing conditions in deaths due to COVID-19 by broad age group. This table also shows the number of COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions.
User requested datasets
If your needs are not met by the publications provided, please get in touch with our Health Analysis and Pandemic Insights (HAPI) customer services team, who will be able to assist with providing this information via our bespoke services route. These services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs under the ONS Charging policy.
If you would like to discuss further or to obtain a quote, please contact the HAPI Customer Service team at health.data@ons.gov.uk.