FOI Ref: FOI-2023-111
You asked
I would like to request information about: Deaths in England or the UK with natural causes on the death certificate such as on a monthly basis from the start of 2019 to current time. I assume, from 2020 onwards, we don't get COVID-19 and natural causes put on a same one death certificate. If we do, please exclude those that also mention COVID-19. If you can, please also disclose separate figures for the numbers that mention both natural causes and COVID-19 (regardless of whether or not anything additional to both COVID-19 and natural causes is also mentioned).
We said
Thank you for your request.
We do not hold data showing deaths from 'natural causes', as this is not terminology used by doctors in the death registration process.
Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes, an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
There is no ICD-10 code for 'natural causes', as this is not recognised by the ICD-10 as a cause of death. Please see the following guidance for how doctors record a cause of death for more information: Guidance notes for completing a medical certificate of cause of death.
However, please see our most recent annual deaths publication via the following link: Deaths registered in England and Wales 2021
In 2021, there were 586,334 deaths registered in England and Wales, which was a decrease of 3.6% compared with 2020 (607,922 deaths).
As in 2020, the leading cause of death in England and Wales in 2021 was coronavirus (COVID-19), with 67,350 deaths (11.5% of all deaths);
the second most common cause of death was dementia and Alzheimer's disease, accounting for 10.4% of all deaths registered in 2021 (61,250 deaths).
Sheets 10a, 10b and 10c show leading causes of death and Sheets 9a and 9b shows morbidity and mortality by external cause and secondary cause.
Annual data is available in this dataset from 2006 to 2021.
Alternatively, you can use our interactive webservice NOMIS which will provide deaths registered in England and Wales by underlying cause of death and ICD-10 code.
Data is available in NOMIS from 2013 to 2021.
Instructions on how to use NOMIS are as follows:
Select Query data
Select Mortality statistics - underlying cause, sex and age (2013 to 2021)
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)
For 2022, we have not yet published the Deaths Registered Series but have released Deaths registered summary statistics, England and Wales.
In 2022, there were 577,160 deaths registered in England and Wales, which was a decrease of 1.6% decrease. There were 22,454 deaths registered with COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.
For monthly data, we hold the following analysis Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) which provides the number of deaths registered by leading cause of death from January 2020 to April 2023.
We do not hold analysis of deaths by cause monthly prior to 2020 but could create this as a user requested dataset for you. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality data are subject to disclosure control, legal frameworks, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy.
For further information, please contact the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) customer service team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.