FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2739
You asked
Please supply the following information:
Number of influenza deaths by year 2015 to present
Number of stillbirths by year 2015 to present
Number of heart disease deaths by year 2015 to present
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We hold mortality data for England and Wales, based on the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.
Ischaemic heart disease is defined using ICD-10 codes I20-I25, these are a subcategory of Chapter IX 'Diseases of the circulatory system' which is defined using ICD-10 codes I00-I99. Influenza can be identified using the underlying cause of death ICD-10 codes: J09-J11.
Death registrations for England and Wales are available to download via NOMIS. This is an interactive web service that provides numbers of deaths and rates broken down by year of registration (2013 to 2020), age group, sex and area of usual residence.
We do have provisional numbers of deaths for both influenza and pneumonia combined for 2021 in our latest weekly deaths publication. Because death registrations data for 2021 are still highly provisional and we do not produce or offer bespoke tabulations of provisional death registration data and so we do not hold analysis on the number of deaths from influenza alone for 2021. Detailed cause of death information for deaths registered in 2021 will be published via the DR Series and NOMIS in July 2022.
To create your own bespoke tabulations of mortality data within NOMIS, please follow these instructions:
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age - All ages or 5-year age bands.
- Select Gender - Total or Male/Female
- Select rates - All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
Information on stillbirths is currently available as far as 2019 in our Births in England and Wales publication. The dataset can be found here.
Provisional numbers of stillbirths for 2021 are published here: Provisional births in England and Wales: 2020 and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2021. This provides provisional analysis of births occurring between January 2020 and March 2021 in England and Wales using NHS birth notifications to explore possible effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on live births and stillbirths. Provisional stillbirths data for 2020 are available here. When finalised data are ready for publication, the date will be released via our Release Calendar.
If you wish to discuss this information further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.