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.

There were 11,607 deaths registered in England and Wales for the week ending February 21, 2025, compared with 12,365 in the previous week. During this time period, the two weeks with the highest number of weekly deaths were in April 2020, with the week ending April 17, 2020, having 22,351 deaths, and the following week 21,997 deaths, a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Death and life expectancy As of 2022, the life expectancy for women in the UK was just over 82.5 years, and almost 78.6 years for men. Compared with 1765, when average life expectancy was under 39 years, this is a huge improvement in historical terms. Even in the more recent past, life expectancy was less than 47 years at the start of the 20th Century, and was under 70 as recently as the 1950s. Despite these significant developments in the long-term, improvements in life expectancy stalled between 2009/11 and 2015/17, and have even gone in decline since 2020. Between 2020 and 2022, for example, life expectancy at birth fell by 23 weeks for females, and 37 weeks for males.2. COVID-19 in the UK The first cases of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom were recorded on January 31, 2020, but it was not until a month later that cases began to rise exponentially. By March 5 of this year there were more than 100 cases, rising to 1,000 days later and passing 10,000 cumulative cases by March 26. At the height of the pandemic in late April and early May, there were around six thousand new cases being recorded daily. As of January 2023, there were more than 24.2 million confirmed cumulative cases of COVID-19 recorded in the United Kingdom, resulting in 202,156 deaths.

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.

Number of deaths registered each month by area of usual residence for England and Wales, by region, county, health authorities, local and unitary authority, and London borough.

NISRA publish timely but provisional counts of deaths registered by the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRO). Weekly totals are presented alongside a 5-year weekly average number of deaths for the same week over the last five years.

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data was reported at 53.693 Ratio in 2014. This records a decrease from the previous number of 53.890 Ratio for 2013. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data is updated yearly, averaging 83.533 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2014, with 55 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 111.369 Ratio in 1963 and a record low of 53.693 Ratio in 2014. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Adult: Female: per 1000 Female Adults data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Health Statistics. Adult mortality rate, female, is the probability of dying between the ages of 15 and 60--that is, the probability of a 15-year-old female dying before reaching age 60, if subject to age-specific mortality rates of the specified year between those ages.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) University of California, Berkeley, and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The Human Mortality Database.; Weighted average;

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

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.

United Kingdom UK: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data was reported at 9.100 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 9.200 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data is updated yearly, averaging 11.300 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 12.200 Ratio in 1963 and a record low of 8.700 Ratio in 2011. United Kingdom UK: Death Rate: Crude: per 1000 People data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Crude death rate indicates the number of deaths occurring during the year, per 1,000 population estimated at midyear. Subtracting the crude death rate from the crude birth rate provides the rate of natural increase, which is equal to the rate of population change in the absence of migration.; ; (1) United Nations Population Division. World Population Prospects: 2017 Revision. (2) Census reports and other statistical publications from national statistical offices, (3) Eurostat: Demographic Statistics, (4) United Nations Statistical Division. Population and Vital Statistics Reprot (various years), (5) U.S. Census Bureau: International Database, and (6) Secretariat of the Pacific Community: Statistics and Demography Programme.; Weighted average;

This publication of the SHMI relates to discharges in the reporting period August 2023 - July 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).

Excess Winter Deaths (EWD) by age and conditions (underlying cause of death) expressed as average per year based on 7 years pooled data, 2004-2011. EWD trend expressed as average per year based on 3 years data.

The Excess Winter Mortality Index (EWM Index was calculated based on the 'ONS Method' which defines the winter period as December to March, and the non-winter period as August to November of that same year and April to July of the following year.

This winter period was selected as they are the months which over the last 50 years have displayed above average monthly mortality. However, if mortality starts to increase prior to this, for example in November, the number of deaths in the non-winter period will increase, which in turn will decrease the estimate of excess winter mortality.

The EWM Index will be partly dependent on the proportion of older people in the population as most excess winter deaths effect older people (there is no standardisation in this calculation by age or any other factor).

Excess winter mortality is calculated as winter deaths (deaths occurring in December to March) minus the average of non-winter deaths (April to July of the current year and August to November of the previous year). The Excess winter mortality index is calculated as excess winter deaths divided by the average non-winter deaths, expressed as a percentage.

Relevant link: http://www.wmpho.org.uk/excesswinterdeathsinEnglandatlas/

Annual UK and constituent country figures for births, deaths, marriages, divorces, civil partnerships and civil partnership dissolutions.

Annual data on death registrations by single year of age for the UK (1974 onwards) and England and Wales (1963 onwards).

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: Female: per 100,000 Female Population data was reported at 0.200 Ratio in 2016. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.200 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: Female: per 100,000 Female Population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.200 Ratio from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.400 Ratio in 2000 and a record low of 0.200 Ratio in 2016. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: Female: per 100,000 Female Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Health Statistics. Mortality rate attributed to unintentional poisonings is the number of female deaths from unintentional poisonings in a year per 100,000 female population. Unintentional poisoning can be caused by household chemicals, pesticides, kerosene, carbon monoxide and medicines, or can be the result of environmental contamination or occupational chemical exposure.; ; World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).; Weighted average;

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Neonatal: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 2.600 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.700 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Neonatal: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 4.800 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2016, with 57 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 16.100 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 2.600 Ratio in 2016. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Neonatal: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Health Statistics. Neonatal mortality rate is the number of neonates dying before reaching 28 days of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.; ; Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries.

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: per 100,000 Population data was reported at 0.200 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.300 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: per 100,000 Population data is updated yearly, averaging 0.300 Ratio from Dec 2000 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.500 Ratio in 2000 and a record low of 0.200 Ratio in 2016. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate Attributed to Unintentional Poisoning: per 100,000 Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Health Statistics. Mortality rate attributed to unintentional poisonings is the number of deaths from unintentional poisonings in a year per 100,000 population. Unintentional poisoning can be caused by household chemicals, pesticides, kerosene, carbon monoxide and medicines, or can be the result of environmental contamination or occupational chemical exposure.; ; World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory Data Repository (http://apps.who.int/ghodata/).; Weighted average;

United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 3.900 Ratio in 2016. This stayed constant from the previous number of 3.900 Ratio for 2015. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 4.600 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.100 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 3.900 Ratio in 2016. United Kingdom UK: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Female: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.World Bank: Health Statistics. Under-five mortality rate, female is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn female baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to female age-specific mortality rates of the specified year.; ; Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

To reduce deaths from stroke.

Table of directly (DSR) age-standardised rates of suicides per 100,000 population, and Indirectly (SMR) (Includes undetermined Injuries), all ages and age 15 plus, three year (pooled) average and annual, by sex.

Deaths from intentional self-harm and injury undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted (ICD-10 X60-X84, Y10-Y34 exc Y33.9, ICD-9 E950-E959 and E980-E989 exc E988.8), registered in the respective calendar year(s).

DSR stands for Directly age-Standardised Rates.

Mortality rates are age standardised using the European Standard Population as defined by the World Health Organisation.

3 year average rates are calculated as the average of single year rates for 3 successive years.

Standardised Mortality Ratio (SMR), England = 100

NHS mental health information can be found here.

Various other suicide indicators are available from IC NHS website, including years of life lost, crude death rates, and indirectly standardised ratios (SMR). Follow: Compendium of population health indicators > Illness and Condition > Mental health and behavioural disorders