Percentage of under 40 year olds who have died from COVID-19, including their vaccination status

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3345

You asked

Please supply the percentage of under 40 year olds who have died from COVID-19 from January 2020 to present (10 Decemeber 2021).

Please supply how many of this figure are vaccinated who have died vs unvaccinated. Please supply the percentage and a numerical figure.

We said

​Thank you for your enquiry.

We hold death registration data for England and Wales. COVID-19 mortality statistics are available from March 2020 onwards, the point at which the first COVID-19 related death was registered.

Numbers of deaths involving COVID-19 for England and Wales by 5-year age band, 2020 and 2021, can be found in our latest weekly deaths publication. This publication includes numbers of deaths from all causes, and a breakdown of deaths 'due to' COVID-19 (where it was recorded as the underlying cause of death) and deaths 'involving' COVID-19 (where it was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate). You can access the excel reference tables via the following link: 2020 and 2021.

Numbers of deaths from all causes, and deaths due to and involving COVID-19, by sex and single year of age, for deaths registered monthly between March 2020 and November 2021, England and Wales, are available in our monthly mortality analysis publication. You can access the reference table here. Using the data in Table 1 of the excel reference table, you can calculate the total number of deaths and the percentage of deaths due to and involving COVID-19 for people aged Under 40.

To do this you need to sum the number of deaths from all causes, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 and the number of deaths involving COVID-19 for persons aged Under 40 for the entire period (March 2020 to November 2021). A percentage can be calculated by dividing the number of COVID-19 deaths by the total number of deaths from all causes, then multiplying by 100. We have calculated these figures and presented them in the table below.

notes:

1. Figures include deaths of non-residents.
2. Based on date a death was registered rather than occurred.
3. We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths with an underlying cause of death as COVID-19 and we use the term "involving COVID-19" when referring to deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not. The International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Edition (ICD-10) definition has been used, please see the definitions tab for more information.

We have recently published deaths by vaccination status, England, for the period 1 January 2021 and 31 October 2021, which is accessible via the following link: Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 1 January and 31 October 2021.

This analysis shows vaccination status within or exceeding 21 days, as this is the timeframe whereby the vaccine is deemed most effective. You can access the excel reference table here. Data are available for the age band 18-39 in Tables 5, 6 and 7 and Table 9 presents data by five-year age band. Due to the complex data linkage methods involved in this analysis, the data are only currently available for England. This publication does not include percentages, though these can be calculated using the data presented in Table 9. If you would like further guidance on the calculation of percentages, please contact the Health Data team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk. This publication also includes age-standardise rates.

Vaccination status is assessed at date of death. Our analysis uses the following categories:

• Were unvaccinated
• Received only the first dose, less than 21 days ago
• Received only the first dose, at least 21 days ago
• Received the second dose, less than 21 days ago
• Received the second dose, at least 21 days ago

If you would like further information regarding the above, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.