Excess mortality in England, week ending 03 July 2020
Experimental Statistics
- Introduction
- All Persons
- Age Group Males
- Age Group Females
- Ethnic Group Males
- Ethnic Group Females
- Deprivation
- Region
- Deaths by Underlying Cause
- Ischaemic heart diseases
- Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases)
- Other circulatory diseases
- Cancer
- Acute respiratory infections (including flu/pneumonia)
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases
- Other respiratory diseases
- Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
- Diseases of the urinary system
- Cirrhosis and other liver disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Other causes (excluding COVID-19)
- Deaths with a Mention of Specific Causes
- Place of Death
- Comparisons to other measures of excess deaths in England
Generated on 2020-07-14
Introduction
Monitoring excess mortality provides understanding of the impact of COVID-19 during the course of the pandemic and beyond. Excess mortality in this report is defined as the number of deaths in 2020 which are above the number expected based on mortality rates in earlier years.
In this report the expected number of deaths is modelled using five years of data from preceding years to estimate the number of deaths we would expect on each day in 2020. Excess deaths are estimated by week and in total since 20 March 2020, based on the date each death was registered rather than when it occurred. Excess deaths are presented by age, sex, region, ethnic group, level of deprivation, cause of death and place of death.
All Persons
Figure 1: Weekly excess deaths by date of registration, England.
The trend in total excess deaths by week, in England, since week ending 27 March 2020 is shown in Figure 1. Numbers above each of the columns show the total number of excess deaths and how these compare with the expected number based on modelled estimates for 2015 to 2019. For example, in week ending 24 April there were 10,054 excess deaths and this was almost double (1.96 times higher) the expected number of deaths in this week. When fewer deaths than expected occur in a week, the column is coloured grey.
Excess deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate are shown in orange. If the number of deaths is not shown in the orange part of the column, that means the total excess was less than the number of deaths with a mention of COVID-19, indicating fewer deaths from other causes than expected in these weeks.
The number of excess deaths without COVID-19 mentioned on the certificate (shown in the white part of the column) may be due to an increase in deaths from other causes during the period of the pandemic but may also reflect under-reporting of deaths involving COVID-19.
Figure 2: Cumulative deaths since 20 March 2020, by date of registration, England.
The trend in the total cumulative number of excess deaths in England since 20 March 2020 is shown in Figure 2.