You asked
Could you please provide information regarding the total number of Influenza deaths in the UK between January to December 2020 (non Covid-19 related).
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. 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.
Figure 2 of our Deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths in 2020 in England and Wales due to Influenza and Pneumonia and the number of deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia.
"Due to" refers only to deaths where Influenza and Pneumonia was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had Influenza and Pneumonia 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 for these statistics.
In this publication, influenza deaths are not shown separately. Figures for both 'Influenza and Pneumonia' are grouped together (J09 – J18). I have summed the weekly totals for you for deaths in 2020 due to Influenza and Pneumonia.
- Deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying or secondary cause): 111,957
- Deaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying cause): 20,523
More in-depth analysis of deaths occurring between 1st January and 31st August 2020, including a split of flu and pneumonia figures for England and Wales and comparisons of deaths from COVID with deaths from flu and pneumonia are available here: Deaths due to coronavirus (COVID-19) compared with deaths from influenza and pneumonia, England and Wales.
Annual mortality data is available by cause for the years 2013-2019 as part of our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice. Influenza is coded under J09-J11. This search can be used to search influenza deaths separately.
A full breakdown of mortality data by cause for England and Wales in 2020 is expected to be released in July 2021.
If you wish to search for previous years in NOMIS, please follow the instructions below:
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). J09-J11
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.