FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2751
You asked
Please supply the following information:
So far in 2021, of the people that have died with COVID-19 on their death certificate, what percentage of these people were vaccinated?
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, of the people that have died with COVID-19 on their death certificate, how many of these people had at least one other underlying cause of death?
Please supply the statistics for suicides, cancer deaths, overdoses, heart disease deaths and dementia deaths for 2015 to 2021.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Latest information on deaths involving COVID-19 is available in our provisional weekly deaths publication.
We are currently working on analysis on a number of aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, including:
- Information regarding deaths after 28 days of vaccination, from any cause.
- Information regarding deaths involving or due to COVID-19 after receiving COVID-19 vaccination.
This requires complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. The release of the findings of this ongoing programme of research prior to completion would jeopardise the research project by potentially putting misleading data into the public domain, as the analysis would not be complete nor quality assured. In turn, this would harm our reputation as a producer of reliable, quality-assured, official statistics. If we were to release inaccurate or misleading data regarding this topic, the trust that the government and the public place in our research and statistics could be severely undermined, which would directly jeopardise our functions.
Therefore, the requested information is exempt under Section 22A (b)(i) and (b)(iii), whereby the information requested was obtained in the course of conducting an ongoing programme of research, which we have a view to publish, and release prior to our planned schedule would prejudice the research programme itself and the organisation conducting the research.
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, which requires time and space. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data, which is not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when the accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before. This is particularly important given the public health implications of data surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines.
The provisional release date for these publications is September 2021. Once publication dates are finalised, they will be announced on our Release Calendar.
Numbers and percentages of deaths involving COVID-19 by main pre-existing condition, for England and Wales, are available in our Provisional Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales publication. Average number of pre-existing conditions in deaths due to COVID-19 is shown in Table 2. This publication contains data up to June 2021. It will be updated to include figures for July on 23rd August 2021. Earlier versions of this publication, covering March 2020 to June 2020, are available here. We have also published a dataset covering the whole of 2020, based on finalised death registration data, this is available here.
The number of suicides for England and Wales, 1981 to 2019, are available here: Suicides in England and Wales: 2019 registrations. This publication will be updated to include 2020 data in September 2021; when a publication date is finalised, it will be announced via our release calendar. We also produce provisional suicide data for England only on a quarterly basis, with the most recent update including deaths that were registered from October to December of 2020.
Please note that suspected suicide deaths are investigated by a coroner in what's known as an inquest. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a delay between the date of death and the date of death registration, referred to as a registration delay. Registration delays for deaths caused by suicide tend to be 5 to 6 months on average. More information about the impact of registration delays is available here.
Numbers of drug related death registrations for England and Wales, 1993 to 2020, are available in our Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales: 2020 registrations publication.
Mortality statistics for all other causes are published annually via our Deaths Registered Series and NOMIS. The latest data available is for 2020. Death registration data for 2021 are still highly provisional, therefore detailed cause of death information is not yet available. This will be published via the DR Series and NOMIS in July 2022. As such, the information you have requested for 2021 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.
Death registrations for England and Wales, for the years 2013 to 2020, for the specific cause groups you require, are available to download via NOMIS. This is an interactive web service that provides numbers of deaths and rates by age group, sex and area of usual residence.
Underlying cause of death is coded from the death certificate using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). Below are the ICD-10 codes you will require to identify deaths from each of the causes you have listed.
- Cancer (Malignant neoplasms) is defined using ICD-10 codes C00-C97
- Ischaemic heart disease is defined using ICD-10 codes I20-I25, these are a subcategory of Chapter IX 'Diseases of the circulatory system' which is defined using ICD-10 codes I00-I99.
- Dementia is defined using ICD-10 codes F00-F03
To create your own bespoke tabulations of mortality data within NOMIS, 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 example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
We have also produced the following publication that you might be interested in: Dementia and Alzheimer's disease deaths including comorbidities, England and Wales: 2019 registrations
If you wish to discuss this information further, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.