FOI/2021/2746

You asked

Please supply the following information:

  1. Total number of deaths in the UK (for any reason), by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  2. Number of COVID-19 deaths by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  3. Number of COVID-19 deaths with no pre-existing conditions, by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  4. Number of COVID-19 deaths where COVID-19 was the primary cause of death on the certificate, by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  5. Number of COVID-19 deaths where COVID-19 was the sole cause of death on the certificate, by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  6. Number of influenza deaths, by age, 1 January 2020 - most recent data.

  7. For all of the above requests, please also provide those statistics for the 18-24 age group in particular, in addition to the regular "by age" chart.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Question 1:

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. Therefore, we do not hold information on deaths for the whole of the UK. For Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics please contact National Records Scotland and NISRA respectively.

However, we hold analysis showing a breakdown of weekly deaths by age group in England and Wales in our weekly deaths bulletin, with statistics published up to week ending 6 August 2021. Please see the 'Weekly figures' table in the 2020 and 2021 datasets to view weekly deaths by 5-year age-band.

Question 2:

We also produce a weekly breakdown of COVID-19 deaths by age group and sex in our weekly deaths bulletin. These figures can be viewed in the 'Covid-19 – Weekly registrations' table in the 2020 and 2021 datasets.

Questions 3 and 5:

We hold the following analysis, which provides deaths from COVID-19 with no pre-existing conditions by broad age-group: Pre-existing conditions of people whose death was recorded with an underlying cause of COVID-19. This dataset can be found in section 8 of the Monthly mortality analysis bulletin. This dataset provides a greater insight into the leading pre-existing cause of death groups, for deaths occurring in England and Wales, in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021 that were due to COVID-19.

Please see 'table 1a, row 28 (2020) and row 29 (2021)' for deaths where COVID-19 was listed as the underlying cause, but had no other pre-existing conditions recorded on the death certificate in England and Wales. Table 1b represents these figures for England and table 1c figures are for Wales.

This publication will be updated quarterly. COVID-19 deaths involving pre-existing conditions is split by broad age groups between 1-64 and 65+.

There was a total of 9400 (0-64: 1549 / 65 and over: 7851) deaths in England and Wales 2020 and 6483 (0-64: 1560/ 65 and over: 4923) deaths registered in quarter 1 of 2021 that were due to COVID-19 and were recorded without any pre-existing conditions.

Question 4:

Our weekly deaths dataset includes deaths 'due to' COVID-19. This is where COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death on the death certificate. Deaths 'involving' COVID-19 are also included. This is where COVID-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate. You can find a breakdown of these figures for 2021 in our 'weekly deaths' dataset. Please see row 20 of the 'weekly figures by cause table'. Data for 2020 was published in a different spreadsheet, which is available here. Please see column G for this information.

Question 6:

Deaths from COVID-19 may include cases where the doctor completing the death certificate diagnosed possible cases of COVID-19, for example, where this was based on relevant symptoms, but no test for the virus was conducted. Deaths with a positive test are coded using the ICD10 code U0.71 and those with suspected COVID-19, but no test has been conducted are coded with ICD10 U0.72.

Influenza can be identified using the underlying cause of death ICD-10 codes: J09-J11. If you wish to obtain numbers of deaths from influenza for England and Wales, these can be obtained via our NOMIS webservice for calendar years 2013 to 2020. NOMIS is an interactive webservice that provides numbers of deaths and rates broken down by year of registration (2013 to 2020), age group, sex and area of usual residence.

To use our NOMIS webservice, please follow these instructions:

  • 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 exam
  • Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
  • Select format (Excel or CSV for example)

You can find provisional numbers of deaths for flu and pneumonia combined, for 2021, in the weekly deaths publication in the 'weekly figures by cause' table. Please see rows 15 and 16 for this information. We do not currently hold analysis showing deaths from influenza separately from pneumonia in 2021. We intend to publish this information via NOMIS in July 2022.

Question 7:

The 5-year age-bands provided in the previous publications are split into the groups 15-19 years and 20-24 years. Analysis showing the above information specifically in the 18-24 age group you have requested is not currently held and would need to be created as bespoke analysis. This may be available to commission via our bespoke analysis route. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources, and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there may be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.

Such enquiries would fall outside of the Freedom of Information regime and should be made to: Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.