FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3508
You asked
I previously noted on your website that there were 79,000 smoking related deaths in 2020, compared to 73,000 death in patients who had had a positive covid test in the 28 days prior to their death. I am now unable to find this information has it been removed?
Can you please tell me:
- Total No of deaths in 2019
- Total No of deaths in 2020
- Total No of deaths in 2021
- No of suicides in 2021 (or 2020) if you dont have this information
Can you also please confirm:
- No of deaths in patients who had a positive covid test in previous 28 days that had other underlying health conditions
- What was the accountable for the highest number of deaths in 2020 or 2021 if you have this information?
We said
Thank you for your request.
We do not publish smoking related deaths, nor do we publish COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, therefore the publication you are referring to was not published by ONS.
Smoking related deaths
We have produced analysis of Adult smoking habits in the UK, in partnership with Public Health England. The latest data available is for 2019. In 2020, we published Smoking prevalence in the UK and the impact of data collection changes - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
If you wish to look at mortality statistics by underlying cause of death most commonly associated with smoking, you may obtain this data via our NOMIS webservice. However, we are unable to ascertain if this cause of death was caused by smoking as this is not recorded on the death certificate and ONS does not have a definition for what would constitute as a smoking related death.
NHS England have produced analysis of smoking-related ill health and mortality, the latter using ONS mortality data. You can view this data here: Statistics on Smoking, England 2020.
Deaths estimated to be attributable to smoking, by region and local authority, per 100,00 population are provided in Public Health England Fingertips Tool Local Tobacco Control Profiles.
For annual mortality figures from 1838 to 2020, we hold the following analysis: Deaths registered in England and Wales: 2020 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). We have extracted the total number of deaths for 2019 and 2020 from these publications here:
- 2019 - 530,841
- 2020 - 607,922
The Deaths Registered series for 2021 will be published in July 2022 to allow inclusion of late registrations which are deaths referred for coroner investigation.
However, we have published provisional data for 2021 in the following publication: Deaths Registered weekly in England and Wales. This publication states that there have been 585,899 deaths registered. Please note this figure is subject to change.
We are unable to begin reporting on suicide deaths that occurred in 2021 at this point. Most of these deaths require an inquest, where a coroner investigates the death. The amount of time it takes to hold an inquest causes a lag 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.
Our statistics are based on the date of registration, therefore our latest annual Suicides in England and Wales release is based on 2020 death registrations.
We produce provisional suicide data for England on a quarterly basis, with the next update including deaths that have been registered up to September of 2021. This is for deaths registered in 2021, and due to the registration delay described above, most of these deaths would have occurred in 2020.
Our data is derived from the death certificate, using information received at the point of death registration. This is different to the data used by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) which records all deaths with a positive test within 28 days. Therefore, we do not hold the information requested.
ONS data as described here are different from the figures on COVID-19 deaths published on the government's COVID-19 dashboard which shows 'deaths within 28 days of a positive test'. You can read a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.
UKHSA would be better placed to answer this enquiry. They can be contacted at enquiries@ukhsa.gov.uk.
We can provide deaths registered with COVID-19 as the underlying cause or as a contributory cause in England and Wales. This is using information derived from the death certificate at the point of death registration.
Monthly data
Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales publication. Table 3 shows monthly deaths due to COVID-19 in England and in Wales, and table 3b shows deaths involving COVID-19 in England and in Wales.
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. Information on cause of death coding is available in the User Guide to Mortality Statistics.
2022 data
Provisional data for 2022 is published in our Deaths Registered Weekly in England and Wales analysis but January data will also be published in the above Monthly Mortality Analysis publication in February 2022.
Leading causes of death in 2020 and 2021
Analysis of leading causes of death in 2020 is published in our Deaths Registered series. In England and Wales as a whole, the leading causes of death accounted for 42.4% of all deaths registered in 2020. COVID-19 was the overall leading cause of death, replacing dementia and Alzheimer's disease which was the leading cause in 2019. There were 73,766 deaths with an underlying cause of COVID-19, accounting for 12.1% of all deaths registered in 2020.
Following COVID-19, the remaining leading causes of death in England and Wales were:
- Dementia and Alzheimer's disease (70,047 deaths; 11.5% of all deaths)
- Ischaemic heart diseases (55,807 deaths; 9.2%)
- Cerebrovascular diseases (29,737 deaths; 4.9%)
- Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus, and lung (28,745 deaths; 4.7%)
Analysis of 2021 data will be published in July 2022; however, we do publish a monthly breakdown of leading causes in our Monthly Mortality Analysis.
For further information please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.