Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total number of deaths in the UK in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, (4) 2018, (5) 2019, and (6) 2020.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

13 January 2021

Dear Lord Framlingham,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what was the total number of deaths in the United Kingdom (UK) in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, (3) 2017, (4) 2018, (5) 2019, and (6) 2020 (HL11732).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for publishing the number of deaths registered in Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively. The most recent annual figures published for the UK as a whole are for deaths registered in 2019[1]. Therefore, to produce a provisional figure for 2020, we have totalled provisional estimates published independently by the ONS[2], NRS[3] and NISRA[4].

Table 1 below provides the registered number of deaths from all causes in the UK for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Source: ONS

Notes:

1 Figures are based on deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring, in the specified calendar year.

² Deaths statistics are compiled from information supplied when deaths are certified and registered as part of civil registration, a legal requirement.

³ Deaths should be registered within five days of the date of death with the exception of Scotland where deaths should be registered within eight days. There are however a number of situations when the registration of a death will be delayed, for example deaths referred to coroners.

⁴ The provisional estimates for 2020 are compiled using national estimates published by ONS, NRS and NISRA.

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables

[2] https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2021/01/12/counting-deaths-involving-coronavirus-a-year-in-review/

[3] https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files//statistics/covid19/annual-deaths-excess-deaths-1855-2020.xlsx

[4] https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/monthly-deaths