You asked
Please provide the following:
a) Total number of UK Covid-19 deaths in 2020 that are attributed to the virus alone. Not all deaths after having contracted the virus in the last 28 days.
b) Total number of all deaths in the UK for 2020 up to and including 31.12.2020.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and 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.
Information regarding ONS COVID-19 death statistics:
Our mortality data is derived from the information collected from the death certificate, which is recording during death registration. The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
You can read in detail about the coding of causes of death and identifying the underlying cause in the ONS User guide to mortality statistics and the WHO International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) instruction manual.
Deaths from COVID-19 with no underlying health conditions in 2020 in England and Wales:
Please see Table 6a of the following dataset: Deaths involving COVID-19, England and Wales. This provides the number of deaths where COVID-19 was recorded as the sole condition on the death certificate from March to June 2020.
We are currently reassessing this publication and will be releasing an update soon, analysing data from July onwards.
The final release date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
Deaths 'due to' COVID-19 in England and Wales:
The downloadable datafile beneath Figure 2 of the following publication, Deaths registered weekly, provides deaths due to and involving COVID-19 weekly in 2020. We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, either as underlying cause or contributory factor. Please see the following table taken from this publication, which provides these figures.
| Week number | Deaths involving COVID-19 | Deaths due to COVID-19 |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | - | - |
| Week 2 | - | - |
| Week 3 | - | - |
| Week 4 | - | - |
| Week 5 | - | - |
| Week 6 | - | - |
| Week 7 | - | - |
| Week 8 | - | - |
| Week 9 | - | - |
| Week 10 | - | - |
| Week 11 | 5 | 5 |
| Week 12 | 103 | 95 |
| Week 13 | 539 | 519 |
| Week 14 | 3,475 | 3,332 |
| Week 15 | 6,213 | 5,983 |
| Week 16 | 8,758 | 8,435 |
| Week 17 | 8,237 | 7,867 |
| Week 18 | 6,035 | 5,689 |
| Week 19 | 3,930 | 3,664 |
| Week 20 | 3,810 | 3,511 |
| Week 21 | 2,589 | 2,341 |
| Week 22 | 1,822 | 1,628 |
| Week 23 | 1,588 | 1,392 |
| Week 24 | 1,114 | 948 |
| Week 25 | 783 | 629 |
| Week 26 | 606 | 498 |
| Week 27 | 532 | 408 |
| Week 28 | 366 | 291 |
| Week 29 | 295 | 228 |
| Week 30 | 217 | 161 |
| Week 31 | 193 | 148 |
| Week 32 | 152 | 115 |
| Week 33 | 139 | 104 |
| Week 34 | 138 | 98 |
| Week 35 | 101 | 76 |
| Week 36 | 78 | 69 |
| Week 37 | 99 | 78 |
| Week 38 | 139 | 118 |
| Week 39 | 215 | 178 |
| Week 40 | 321 | 279 |
| Week 41 | 438 | 385 |
| Week 42 | 670 | 590 |
| Week 43 | 978 | 874 |
| Week 44 | 1,379 | 1,196 |
| Week 45 | 1,937 | 1,743 |
| Week 46 | 2,466 | 2,170 |
| Week 47 | 2,697 | 2,361 |
| Week 48 | 3,040 | 2,637 |
| Week 49 | 2,835 | 2,469 |
| Week 50 | 2,756 | 2,337 |
| Week 51 | 2,986 | 2,557 |
| Week 52 | 2,912 | 2,497 |
| Week 53 | 3,144 |
Download this table Deaths involving and due to COVID-19, England and Wales, deaths registered in 2020
.xls .csvTotal deaths in 2020 in England and Wales:
According to the following publication, Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional, using the latest data available for w/e 1 January 2021 (week 53), there have been 614,114 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2020.
Whilst the data has not yet been finalised for 2020, all three Statistical authorities have published blogs with year-end figures.
England and Wales - https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/
Scotland - https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/annual-deaths-excess-deaths-1855-2020.xlsx
Northern Ireland - https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/monthly-deaths