You asked
I would like you to give me a list of the total yearly deaths for England and for the whole of the UK from 1990 to 2020 please?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Mortality totals for the UK and England 1990 to 2019:
Please see the 'deaths' tab in the following publication: Vital Statistics in the UK: Births, deaths, and marriages. This provides totals for the UK and for England only from 1990 to 2019.
You also find Table 4 of the following user-requested ad-hoc analysis useful. This provides deaths in England only from all causes annually by sex and age. Death registrations, Populations and Age Standardised Rates, England 1981 to 2018. Data is available from 1981 to 2018.
Mortality totals for the UK and England in 2020
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. We do not currently hold mortality totals for Scotland and Northern Ireland for 2020. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for these statistics. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
The annual mortality dataset for 2020 is scheduled for release in July 2021, which will include a total mortality figure for England only in 2020.
As such, the total number of deaths registered in England only in 2020 is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
However, we have published a blog with provisional year-end figures from 1 January 2020 to 31December 2020 for England and Wales combined, which you may find useful: https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/
You may also be interested in the following data we have available, which provides figures from England and Wales combined from 1938 to 2020: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/adhocs/12735annualdeathsandmortalityrates1938to2020provisional