Comparison of the weekly overall death count over the last three years and advice on how to view this on a smartphone

Release date:
17 July 2020

You asked

I want to be able to compare say the last 3 years, by weekly overall death totals.

Please can you also show me how to compare these figures with overall weekly deaths on a smartphone, without COVID-19 in any of the titles.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

If you are using a mobile to view our data, the data may need to be condensed into a more manageable dataset for a small device and screen. We suggest viewing data on our Customise My Data service.

Here is a link to the relevant dataset page for Weekly Deaths (by age and sex) for data from 2010-2019: https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/weekly-deaths-age-sex/editions/2010-19/versions/1

From here, the "Filter and download" button can be used to select which aspects of the data you require. For example, the data contain 10 years' worth, but you could select just the last three. Please note, this is currently a beta service, so not yet a full part of the website, but it will hopefully prove useful for you.

For 2020 death data please follow the links below, which will take you to webpages where you can add filter options. When filtering by the option "Deaths", please select "Total registered deaths", which will give you an overall figure for all deaths, not just those from COVID-19.

The site will then produce a customised dataset for you in an excel format, which you can download and view on your phone.

Death registered weekly in England and Wales by age and sex: You can filter this dataset by age group, deaths, sex, and week number. Please click on this link for this service: https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/weekly-deaths-age-sex/editions/covid-19/versions/7

Death registrations and occurrences by local authority and place of death: You can filter data by cause of death, geography, place of death, registration or occurrence, and week. Please click on this link for this service: https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/weekly-deaths-local-authority/editions/time-series/versions/7

Death registrations and occurrences by health board and place of death: You can filter this data by cause of death, geography, place of death, registration or occurrence, and week. Please click on this link for this service: https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/weekly-deaths-health-board/editions/time-series/versions/7

Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales by region for COVID-19: This can be filtered by deaths, geography, and week. Please click this link to view this data: https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/weekly-deaths-region/editions/covid-19/versions/7

We have also produced the below table, which compares overall weekly deaths over the past four years.

Weekly death registration data
Week number12345678
202012,25414,05812,99011,85611,61210,98610,94410,841
201910,95512,60911,86011,74011,29711,66011,82411,295
201812,72315,05014,25613,93513,28512,49512,24612,142
201711,99113,71513,61012,87712,48512,26911,64411,794
910111213141516
202010,81610,89511,01910,64511,14116,38718,51622,351
201911,04410,89810,56710,4029,86710,12610,2919,025
201810,85412,99712,78811,9139,94110,79412,30111,223
201711,24811,07710,69710,32510,0279,9398,4939,644
1718192021222324
202021,99717,95312,65714,57312,2889,82410,7099,976
201910,05911,2079,05510,27210,2848,26010,1409,445
201810,30610,1538,62410,1419,6368,1479,9509,343
201710,9089,06410,69310,28810,0408,3329,7669,367
2526272829303132
20209,339
20199,4589,5119,0629,1799,0809,1129,2719,122
20189,2569,2129,2589,2939,1279,1419,1619,319
20179,6279,3349,2639,3769,1138,8828,9419,038
3334353637383940
2020
20199,0938,9948,2429,6959,5139,4409,5179,799
20188,8308,9787,8659,4459,1919,3059,1509,503
20179,2999,3828,1499,4979,4549,5349,6899,778
4142434445464748
2020
20199,97310,15610,02110,16410,69710,65010,88210,958
20189,6499,8649,6039,52910,15110,1939,95710,033
20179,94010,0319,7399,98410,34610,27510,62110,538
49505152
2020
201910,81611,18811,9267,533
201810,28710,55011,1167,131
201710,78111,21712,5178,487

Source: Office for National Statistics

Download this table Weekly death registration data

.xls .csv

Things you need to know:

Weekly death figures provide provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales for which data are available, and the number of deaths for which the underlying cause was coded to respiratory diseases as defined in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems Tenth Revision (ICD-10).

Notes and definitions:

Deaths occurring in England and Wales are registered on the General Register Office's Registration Online system (RON).

Daily extracts of death registration records from RON are processed on our database systems.

Provisional data on deaths registered in each week (ending on a Friday) are compiled at the end of the following week.

Bank Holidays could affect the number of registrations made within those weeks.

The counts of deaths from specific conditions are updated with each weekly publication as the coding of the underlying cause is not always complete at the time of production.

For deaths registered from 1 January 2020, cause of death is coded to the ICD-10 classification using MUSE 5.5 software. Previous years were coded to IRIS 4.2.3, further information about the change in software is available.

Where there are the same values in categories in consecutive weeks, the counts have been checked and are made up of unique death registrations.

The below information is available via the following link: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional:

  • Weekly deaths from all causes, from 2017 to 2020

  • For 2020, this provides provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, by age, sex and region, in the latest weeks for which data are available. Includes the most up-to-date figures available for deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19).

  • For 2019-2017 this provides provisional counts of the number of deaths registered in England and Wales, by age, sex and region, in the latest weeks for which data are available.

Additional further information is available: Five-year average weekly deaths registered in England and Wales, by gender and age groupings

If you require further assistance, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.

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