FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3473
You asked
Please supply how many Covid 19 deaths have occurred in England and Wales in both 2020 and 2021.
Please supply two sets of information: one showing deaths involving Covid 19 and the other showing where Covid 19 was the underlying cause.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry requesting COVID-19 deaths by underlying cause and/or contributory mention in England and Wales.
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.
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.
Annual data
We hold the following analysis Deaths due to COVID-19, registered in England and Wales: 2020 which has 81,795 deaths involving COVID-19, of which 73,766 deaths are registered as due to COVID-19 in England and Wales in 2020.
We have not yet completed analysis of 2021 COVID-19 deaths in this format, however monthly data which can be summed is provided below.
Monthly data
Provisional data for 2020 and 2021 is held as part of our 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.
For further information on your request, please contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.