You asked

​​Can you tell me how many people died from flu in the UK for the last 5 winters including the winter of 2020/21 so far?

We said

Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for the production of mortality data for England and Wales. We do not hold influenza mortality information for Scotland and Northern Ireland. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) would be better placed to help with these figures. 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.

However, please see the following data we hold for influenza deaths in England and Wales for the past 5 years:

The following dataset was produced as an ad hoc, commissioned by another user: The number of deaths where influenza was the underlying cause of death or was mentioned on the death certificate, by five-year age group, England and Wales, 2001 to 2016.

Annual figures for deaths from influenza in from 2013 - 2019 can be accessed through our explorable dataset available on our NOMIS webservice, accessible via the following link: NOMIS webservice. Influenza is coded under J09-J11.

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  • Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available). J09-J11
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Provisional influenza and pneumonia figures 2020

Figure 2 of our deaths registered weekly bulletin shows the number of deaths from 2020 up to 22January due to influenza and pneumonia combined and the number of deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia.

"Due to" refers only to deaths where Influenza and Pneumonia was recorded as the underlying cause of death and "involving" referring to deaths that had Influenza and Pneumonia 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 these statistics. The weekly totals have been summed to provide the following totals for 2020:

  • Deaths involving Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying or secondary cause): 127,575
  • Deaths due to Influenza and Pneumonia (underlying cause): 21,614

The following publication and dataset also provide information regarding the number of influenza deaths occurring between March and August 2020: https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/deathsduetocovid19comparedwithdeathsfrominfluenzaandpneumonia

If you would like to discuss your enquiry further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.