You asked
Could you share with me the total amount of deaths and births for each year of this century? I would like to compare year to year.
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of birth and death statistics for England and Wales.
Please see the following Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages dataset. This dataset contains historic birth and death statistics from 1839 to 2019.
To publish this dataset ONS collaborate with N. Ireland (NISRA: Northern Island Statistical Research Agency) and Scotland (NRS: National Records Scotland) to collate headline figures for the UK. Due to individual publishing timelines, analysis of UK figures for 2020 are expected to be published January 2022.
ONS birth and death figures for England and Wales for 2020 have not yet been finalised. The annual births and deaths datasets are scheduled for release in 2021:
Annual Births: Scheduled for release August 2021 (Provisional)
Annual Deaths: Scheduled for release July 2021 (Provisional)
The Deaths Registered series is always published mid-year to allow it to be at its most complete and include as many late registrations as possible. Deaths that are referred to Coroners inquest have a 3-6 month delay on registrations, as the death cannot be registered until the inquest is complete.
Provisional Births 2020
ONS published 'Provisional births in England and Wales' on 7th December 2020, this dataset provides birth statistics between January and September and how they compared to the same period in recent years.
Provisional Deaths 2020
Provisional weekly death registration data for 2020 is available via the ONS weekly deaths bulletin. Weekly deaths are available in the 'weekly figures 2020' table, this is updated every Tuesday at 09:30. I have summed the weekly totals for you to give you the cumulative figure, 2020 deaths: 614,114 (up to week ending 1st January 2021).
Here is an additional link to a blog for England and Wales which provides useful information on the different aspects of 2020 mortality data collection for counting deaths involving coronavirus.
Finalised births and deaths data for 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.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.