Total deaths in the UK 2010 to 2020 and the number of UK deaths from COVID-19 only

You asked

Please could you provide the following information at your convenience.

Number of deaths for the whole of the UK for the last 5-10 years (including 2020), broken down by month if you can.

Number of UK covid deaths from Covid, not 'with' covid - ie no pre-existing conditions, or other reasons to be in hospital, ie, had a operation that went wrong, or in hospital due to an accident, in other words, those deaths whereby covid was the sole reason for the death.

We said

Thank you for your request.

We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. 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.

Total UK deaths 2009 to 2019:

However, we do publish headline figures within our Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages. The latest data available is 2019.

Deaths in England and Wales in 2020:

According to the following publication, Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional, using the latest data available for w/e 1st January 2021 (week 53) there have been 614,114 deaths registered in England and Wales.

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

Monthly deaths in England and Wales:

Monthly deaths are available for England and Wales as part of our Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales publication. Data is available for 2006 to 2020.

COVID-19 deaths in England and Wales:

We are unable to discern the number of people who have died 'with' COVID-19, because the doctor or coroner only mentions on the death certificate those health conditions that were believed to contribute to the cause of death. If a person had COVID-19, but that was not part of the reason they died, it will not be mentioned on the death certificate.

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.

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.

Unfortunately, we are unable to discern exactly how many people who died from ('due to' or 'involving') COVID-19 had pre-existing health conditions, only how many had a pre-existing condition mentioned on the death certificate. The death certificate is not designed to capture the whole medical history of the deceased – only those health conditions that contributed to the cause of death. In this report in July 2020, we explained that about 90% of people who died from COVID-19 had at least one pre-existing condition mentioned on the death certificate. This is the latest available report, but we will be publishing an update soon.