You asked
Please can you tell me the total number of deaths for UK in 2020 and 2019, month by month comparison.
Please can you tell me the total number of deaths in UK in 2020 and 2019, month by month comparisons for deaths due to ANY of influenza, pneumonia or Covid-19 (all combined together, not separated)
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. Therefore, we do not hold monthly mortality totals nor deaths by influenza, pneumonia, or COVID-19 for Scotland and Northern Ireland. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Monthly deaths in England and Wales
Provisional monthly death registration data for 2020 and finalised monthly 2019 data are available via the following dataset: Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales.
Monthly deaths for 2019 are available in the 'figures for 2019' tab in the 2019 spreadsheet. Monthly deaths for 2020 are available in the 'figures for 2020' tab of the 2020 spreadsheet.
The cumulative monthly totals for 2019 and 2020 (provisional) in England and Wales are:
- 2020 monthly deaths: 607,169
- 2019 monthly deaths: 529,553
Annual figures for 2020 will be finalised in July 2021 and our annual publication, Deaths registered series, will be updated.
Influenza and Pneumonia / COVID-19 2020 figures
Figure 2 of our deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the combined number of deaths due to influenza and pneumonia and the number of deaths involving influenza and pneumonia from 1 January 2020 to 22 January 2021. This figure also contains weekly death figures due to and involving COVID-19 for the same date range.
"Due to" refers only to deaths where influenza, pneumonia, or COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had influenza, pneumonia, or COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
Please see the 'download data' option at the bottom of Figure 2 for a spreadsheet showing these statistics.
Please see the following summed totals for deaths from influenza, pneumonia, and COVID-19 up to week ending 22January 2021:
Deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying or secondary cause): 127,575
Deaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying cause): 21,614
Deaths involving COVID-19 (underlying or secondary cause): 102,554
Deaths due to COVID-19 (underlying cause): 92,913
Influenza and Pneumonia 2019
We do not hold analysis showing a monthly or weekly breakdown of influenza and pneumonia-related deaths for previous years.
However, we do have published annual mortality data available by cause for the years 2013-2019. This is available as part of our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice. This search can be used to search Influenza and pneumonia deaths separately. A full breakdown of mortality data by cause for 2020 is expected to be released in summer 2021.
Please see the following instructions for using our NOMIS webservice:
- 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). J09-J18 – Influenza and Pneumonia
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
If you would like to discuss the data provided in your request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.