For the week ending March 7, 2025, weekly deaths in England and Wales were 124 below the number expected, compared with 460 fewer than expected in the previous week. In late 2022, and through early 2023, excess deaths were elevated for a number of weeks, with the excess deaths figure for the week ending January 13, 2023, the highest since February 2021. In the middle of April 2020, at the height of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there were almost 12,000 excess deaths a week recorded in England and Wales. It was not until two months later, in the week ending June 19, 2020, that the number of deaths began to be lower than the five-year average for the corresponding week. Most deaths since 1918 in 2020 In 2020, there were 689,629 deaths in the United Kingdom, making that year the deadliest since 1918, at the height of the Spanish influenza pandemic. As seen in the excess death figures, April 2020 was by far the worst month in terms of deaths during the pandemic. The weekly number of deaths for weeks 16 and 17 of that year were 22,351, and 21,997 respectively. Although the number of deaths fell to more usual levels for the rest of that year, a winter wave of the disease led to a high number of deaths in January 2021, with 18,676 deaths recorded in the fourth week of that year. For the whole of 2021, there were 667,479 deaths in the UK, 22,150 fewer than in 2020. Life expectancy in the UK goes into reverse In 2022, life expectancy at birth for women in the UK was 82.6 years, while for men it was 78.6 years. This was the lowest life expectancy in the country for ten years, and came after life expectancy improvements stalled throughout the 2010s, and then declined from 2020 onwards. There is also quite a significant regional difference in life expectancy in the UK. In the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, for example, the life expectancy for men was 81.5 years, and 86.5 years for women. By contrast, in Blackpool, in North West England, male life expectancy was just 73.1 years, while for women life expectancy was lowest in Glasgow, at 78 years.

In November of 2024, the excess mortality rate of the Netherlands stood at 9.9 percent, indicating that 9.9 percent more people died than in the baseline period. This is after a significant peak in April of 2020, following the outbreak of the coronovirus (COVID-19).

In November of 2024, the excess mortality rate of Luxembourg stood at 2.6 percent, indicating that 2.6 percent more people died than in the baseline period. This is after a significant peak in November of 2020, following the outbreak of the coronovirus (COVID-19).

The number of deaths per week in Sweden was higher from week 12 to week 26 in 2020 than it was in the years 2015 to 2019. Moreover, it increased from week 46 in 2020 and fell below the average of 2015 to 2019 in week five in 2021. Several of the deaths in 2020 were related to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2022, the number of deaths per week decreased from week seven, but was high in the last weeks of the year and the first weeks of 2023, before falling again. Causes of death In 2022, diseases of the circulatory system were the most common cause of death in Sweden. Over 28,000 deaths were caused by this type of disease that year. Cancerous tumors caused the second highest number of deaths in Sweden. COVID-19 in Sweden Sweden is the Nordic country that has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic. All in all, the number of deaths in Sweden in 2023 amounted to nearly 95,000.

This publication of the SHMI relates to discharges in the reporting period November 2023 - October 2024. The SHMI is the ratio between the actual number of patients who die following hospitalisation at the trust and the number that would be expected to die on the basis of average England figures, given the characteristics of the patients treated there. The SHMI covers patients admitted to hospitals in England who died either while in hospital or within 30 days of being discharged. To help users of the data understand the SHMI, trusts have been categorised into bandings indicating whether a trust's SHMI is 'higher than expected', 'as expected' or 'lower than expected'. For any given number of expected deaths, a range of observed deaths is considered to be 'as expected'. If the observed number of deaths falls outside of this range, the trust in question is considered to have a higher or lower SHMI than expected. The expected number of deaths is a statistical construct and is not a count of patients. The difference between the number of observed deaths and the number of expected deaths cannot be interpreted as the number of avoidable deaths or excess deaths for the trust. The SHMI is not a measure of quality of care. A higher than expected number of deaths should not immediately be interpreted as indicating poor performance and instead should be viewed as a 'smoke alarm' which requires further investigation. Similarly, an 'as expected' or 'lower than expected' SHMI should not immediately be interpreted as indicating satisfactory or good performance. Trusts may be located at multiple sites and may be responsible for 1 or more hospitals. A breakdown of the data by site of treatment is also provided, as well as a breakdown of the data by diagnosis group. Further background information and supporting documents, including information on how to interpret the SHMI, are available on the SHMI homepage (see Related Links).

In August 2023, the excess mortality rate of Belgium stood at -0.6 percent, indicating that 0.6 percent less people died than in the baseline period. This is following a significant peak in April 2020, following the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In 2024, the total number of deaths in China amounted to around 10.93 million. The number of deaths increased slightly but steadily over the past two decades, only disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. This trend is mainly related to China’s demographic development and is expected to accelerate in the upcoming years. China’s aging society China had the second largest population on earth in 2024. However, population growth in China has gradually decreased over the last decades and finally turned negative in 2022. Together with steadily improving health standards and growing life expectancy, this has led to a quickly aging society. As relatively large age cohorts are now reaching the years of retirement, the number of elderly in the country is projected to increase quickly. This is especially visible in the number of people aged 80 years and above, which is expected to rise more than four-fold from 32 million in 2020 to 132 million in 2050. This development will probably be the main factor leading to a growing number of mortalities in China in the upcoming years. China’s mortality rate in comparison Globally, China’s mortality rate is at a low range at slightly less than eight deaths per thousand inhabitants annually. The low mortality rate was a result of political stability and steady improvements in the health system. As the Chinese population grows older, cancer, heart attacks, and cerebrovascular diseases are increasingly common causes of death. In comparison to most Western countries, the number of fatalities due to COVID-19 was low in 2020 and 2021, but there was a slight excess mortality in 2023 and. Most common infectious diseases with high death rates in China were AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Hepatitis B in 2021.

Age-standardised mortality rates for deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19), non-COVID-19 deaths and all deaths by vaccination status, broken down by age group.

Number of deaths and mortality rates, by age group, sex, and place of residence, 1991 to most recent year.

Notes:

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic the number of excess deaths in Europe reached a peak in 2020 with over 400 thousand. Excess deaths in Europe also remained relatively high in 2021 and 2022. Through week 40 in 2023, around 80 thousand excess deaths were recorded. Excess death is a metric in epidemiology of the increase in the number of deaths over a time period and/or in a specific group when compared to the predicted value or statistical trend over a reference period or in a reference population.

Provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, by age, sex, region and Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), in the latest weeks for which data are available.

This dataset represents preliminary estimates of cumulative U.S. COVID-19 disease burden for the 2024-2025 period, including illnesses, outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. The weekly COVID-19-associated burden estimates are preliminary and based on continuously collected surveillance data from patients hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. The data come from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), a surveillance platform that captures data from hospitals that serve about 10% of the U.S. population. Each week CDC estimates a range (i.e., lower estimate and an upper estimate) of COVID-19 -associated burden that have occurred since October 1, 2024.

Note: Data are preliminary and subject to change as more data become available. Rates for recent COVID-19-associated hospital admissions are subject to reporting delays; as new data are received each week, previous rates are updated accordingly.

References

1. Reed C, Chaves SS, Daily Kirley P, et al. Estimating influenza disease burden from population-based surveillance data in the United States. PLoS One. 2015;10(3):e0118369. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0118369 
2. Rolfes, MA, Foppa, IM, Garg, S, et al. Annual estimates of the burden of seasonal influenza in the United States: A tool for strengthening influenza surveillance and preparedness. Influenza Other Respi Viruses. 2018; 12: 132– 137. https://doi.org/10.1111/irv.12486
3. Tokars JI, Rolfes MA, Foppa IM, Reed C. An evaluation and update of methods for estimating the number of influenza cases averted by vaccination in the United States. Vaccine. 2018;36(48):7331-7337. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2018.10.026 
4. Collier SA, Deng L, Adam EA, Benedict KM, Beshearse EM, Blackstock AJ, Bruce BB, Derado G, Edens C, Fullerton KE, Gargano JW, Geissler AL, Hall AJ, Havelaar AH, Hill VR, Hoekstra RM, Reddy SC, Scallan E, Stokes EK, Yoder JS, Beach MJ. Estimate of Burden and Direct Healthcare Cost of Infectious Waterborne Disease in the United States. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Jan;27(1):140-149. doi: 10.3201/eid2701.190676. PMID: 33350905; PMCID: PMC7774540.
5. Reed C, Kim IK, Singleton JA,  et al. Estimated influenza illnesses and hospitalizations averted by vaccination–United States, 2013-14 influenza season. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014 Dec 12;63(49):1151-4. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6349a2.htm 
6. Reed C, Angulo FJ, Swerdlow DL, et al. Estimates of the Prevalence of Pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United States, April–July 2009. Emerg Infect Dis. 2009;15(12):2004-2007. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid1512.091413  
7. Devine O, Pham H, Gunnels B, et al. Extrapolating Sentinel Surveillance Information to Estimate National COVID-19 Hospital Admission Rates: A Bayesian Modeling Approach. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irv.70026. Volume18, Issue10. October 2024.
8. https://www.cdc.gov/covid/php/covid-net/index.html">COVID-NET | COVID-19 | CDC 
9. https://www.cdc.gov/covid/hcp/clinical-care/systematic-review-process.html 
10. https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/3/pgac079/6604394?login=false">Excess natural-cause deaths in California by cause and setting: March 2020 through February 2021 | PNAS Nexus | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
11. Kruschke, J. K. 2011. Doing Bayesian data analysis: a tutorial with R and BUGS. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Section 3.3.5.

The number of deaths in Sweden in 2020 amounted to over 98,000. A high share of the deaths in 2020 were related to the coronavirus pandemic. However, in 2021, the number sank below 92,000, before increasing to over 94,000 in 2022 and 2023. The highest number of coronavirus deaths were among individuals age 70 and older. Sweden is the Nordic country that has reported the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The most common causes of death

The most common cause of death in 2022 was diseases of the circulatory system (cardiovascular diseases). This cause was followed by cancerous tumors.

 Ischemic heart disease

Among the diseases in the circulatory system, the one that caused the most deaths was chronic ischemic heart disease. Chronic ischemic heart disease is when the blood flow to the heart is reduced because the arteries of the heart are blocked. In 2020, ischemic heart disease caused more than 50,000 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

Notes:

In 2023, there were approximately 750.5 deaths by all causes per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States. This statistic shows the death rate for all causes in the United States between 1950 and 2023. Causes of death in the U.S. Over the past decades, chronic conditions and non-communicable diseases have come to the forefront of health concerns and have contributed to major causes of death all over the globe. In 2022, the leading cause of death in the U.S. was heart disease, followed by cancer. However, the death rates for both heart disease and cancer have decreased in the U.S. over the past two decades. On the other hand, the number of deaths due to Alzheimer’s disease – which is strongly linked to cardiovascular disease- has increased by almost 141 percent between 2000 and 2021. Risk and lifestyle factors Lifestyle factors play a major role in cardiovascular health and the development of various diseases and conditions. Modifiable lifestyle factors that are known to reduce risk of both cancer and cardiovascular disease among people of all ages include smoking cessation, maintaining a healthy diet, and exercising regularly. An estimated two million new cases of cancer in the U.S. are expected in 2025.

The highest number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths in the Nordic countries as of October 27, 2024, had occurred in Sweden at 28,006. Finland followed with 11,466 deaths, Denmark with 9,919, and Norway with 5,732. Denmark was the Nordic country with the highest number of people confirmed infected with COVID-19, reaching a total of 3,442,484 cases as of October 27, 2024. More statistics and facts about the virus are available here.

Annual data on deaths registered by age, sex and selected underlying cause of death. Tables also provide both mortality rates and numbers of deaths over time.

Notes: