You asked
Please provide the total number of UK deaths in 2019.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
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.
Total deaths for England and Wales can be found in our Deaths registered in England and Wales: 2019 publication.
In 2019, there were 530,841 deaths registered in England and Wales.
You may also be interested in the following publication: Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages. This is a collaborative publication with ONS births, deaths and marriages data for England and Wales, and NRS and NIRSA data for Scotland and Northern Ireland. However, this is provisionally scheduled for to be updated with 2019 data in November 2020.
As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
The telephone number for Health Data customer services is 01329 444110 or by email on Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.