2020 was deadliest year in a century in England and Wales, says ONS
Fatalities hit flu pandemic levels of 1918 with more than 608,000 deaths recorded
A wicker coffin in a new grave, after a burial service at a cemetery in England. Photograph: Shaun Daley/Alamy
Caelainn Barr, Nicola Davis and Pamela Duncan
Tue 12 Jan 2021 13.31 GMT
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Last year was the deadliest in a century, with almost as many fatalities documented in absolute terms in England and Wales in 2020 as at the height of the flu pandemic in 1918.
More than 608,000 deaths were recorded in the calendar year, with 81,653 attributable to coronavirus, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics. The toll pushes deaths to the highest in a century, second only to the all-time record of 611,861, in the worst year of the flu pandemic.
Excess deaths, the number of fatalities above the five-year average, rose to almost 91,000 across the UK in 2020 – the highest on record since the second world war.
The latest data also shows Covid deaths have returned to levels not seen since the first wave. Almost one-third of all deaths registered in the week to 1 January had Covid recorded on the death certificate, the highest proportion of coronavirus deaths since the week ending 1 May.
“When considering recorded UK deaths against other countries, the UK is performing very badly with a death rate of 1,201 per million population. This is the ninth worst death rate in the world, ahead of even the US [1,130 deaths per million],” said Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton.
Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are among the countries with worse Covid death rates than the UK; the US as a whole, France and Spain are among those with lower death rates than the UK at present.
And Spain
Fatalities hit flu pandemic levels of 1918 with more than 608,000 deaths recorded
A wicker coffin in a new grave, after a burial service at a cemetery in England. Photograph: Shaun Daley/Alamy
Caelainn Barr, Nicola Davis and Pamela Duncan
Tue 12 Jan 2021 13.31 GMT
222
Last year was the deadliest in a century, with almost as many fatalities documented in absolute terms in England and Wales in 2020 as at the height of the flu pandemic in 1918.
More than 608,000 deaths were recorded in the calendar year, with 81,653 attributable to coronavirus, according to new figures released by the Office for National Statistics. The toll pushes deaths to the highest in a century, second only to the all-time record of 611,861, in the worst year of the flu pandemic.
Excess deaths, the number of fatalities above the five-year average, rose to almost 91,000 across the UK in 2020 – the highest on record since the second world war.
The latest data also shows Covid deaths have returned to levels not seen since the first wave. Almost one-third of all deaths registered in the week to 1 January had Covid recorded on the death certificate, the highest proportion of coronavirus deaths since the week ending 1 May.
“When considering recorded UK deaths against other countries, the UK is performing very badly with a death rate of 1,201 per million population. This is the ninth worst death rate in the world, ahead of even the US [1,130 deaths per million],” said Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton.
Belgium, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovenia are among the countries with worse Covid death rates than the UK; the US as a whole, France and Spain are among those with lower death rates than the UK at present.
And Spain