FOI REF: FOI-2023-1171
You asked
We request the following information for England and Wales:
The total number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths?
The total amount of COVID-19 deaths with at least one other condition mentioned on the death certificate?
The total amount of COVID-19 deaths with only COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate?
The total number of COVID-19 pneumonia deaths?
The total number of COVID-19 deaths without pneumonia?
The total number of deaths where COVID-19 led to another condition, which in turn led to death. All the above are to be answered in total amounts and then broken down by age groups please.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We hold the following analysis, Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk), which will provide total deaths due to and involving COVID-19 by age group for 2020 and 2021.
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.
The publication of Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales for 2022 is currently under review, and as yet does not have a publication date.
However, most of this information can be found in the following publications:
1. Deaths registered in England and Wales: We will publish 2022 data in October/November of 2023. This is due to work being undertaken on our Population Statistics, which are required to produce the mortality rates in this publication. However, we have published Deaths registered summary statistics, England and Wales which provides a count of number of deaths registered by year, sex, area of usual residence and selected underlying cause of death.
2. NOMIS: In October/November we will also update our 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 2021 (currently, 2022 available in October/November)
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)
Further analysis, including deaths where COVID-19 was a contributory mention on the death certificate, or to receive a full breakdown of COVID-19 deaths at this current time, can be request via our Bespoke User Requested data service. Bespoke tabulations of mortality data are available to order. Such extracts are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy.
For further information on our User Requested Data Scheme please contact Health.data@ons.gov.uk.
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 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 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 in our Monthly Mortality Analysis publication.
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.