FOI ref: FOI/2022/4531
You asked
Could you please inform me as to how many people have died FROM, not WITH Coronarvirus (COVID-19) without any relevant pre-existing conditions since the outbreak began up to the present day, and also the average age of death of these people?
I would also like to know what is the average age of death of people who have died from AND with COVID-19 since the outbreak began up to the present day.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
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 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 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.
We would also recommend reading our recent blog on this subject: To say only 17,000 people have died from COVID-19 is highly misleading.
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 is published quarterly within the Monthly Mortality Analysis publication.
We have not conducted analysis of the average age of death for those with and without pre-existing conditions but can look to produce this as part of our bespoke request service.
Custom extracts and tabulations are available to order from the DASCH Customer Services team. These extracts are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources, and agreement to costs under the ONS charging policy. For further information, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
Average age of COVID-19 deaths
We hold the following analysis regarding the average age of death due to or involving COVID-19: Single year of age and average age of death of people whose death was due to or involved COVID-19 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). This updated monthly to show COVID-19 deaths by single year of age and by average age (both median and mean) in England and Wales.
For further information please contact Health.data@ons.gov.uk.