Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average age of people who have had COVID-19 cited as a contributory cause of death in the last four weeks; how many such people were (1) 0–18, (2) 19–30, (3) 31–40, (4) 41–50, (5) 51–60, (6) 61–70, (7) 71–80, (8) 81–90, and (9) over 90, years old at the time of death; and in each cohort how many such deaths occurred in people with underlying health conditions.

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

14 January 2021

Dear Lord Balfe,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the average age of people who have had COVID-19 cited as a contributory cause of death in the last four weeks; how many such people were (1) 0-18, (2) 19-30, (3) 31-40, (4) 41-50, (5) 51-60, (6) 61-70, (7) 71-80, (8) 81-90, and (9) over 90, years old at the time of death; and in each cohort how many such deaths occurred in people with underlying health conditions (HL11720).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing numbers of deaths registered in England and Wales. Information on deaths involving COVID-19 and pre-existing health conditions was published in July[1]. As part of deaths registered weekly in England and Wales[2], the ONS produces the number of deaths involving COVID-19 by age group. Table 1 provides the number of deaths involving COVID-19 by age group in the last four weeks.

Table 2 is the mean and median age at death of those whose death involves COVID-19 and for all deaths in the last 4 weeks.

Table 3 shows deaths involving COVID-19 where there is no pre-existing condition against total COVID-19 deaths for that age cohort. Data is available from March 2020 to June 2020, however we will be resuming publication of this data within the next 6 weeks.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales involving COVID-19 by age group, Week ending 4 December to Week ending 25 December 2020[3]^{,[4],[5],[6],[7]}

Table 2: Average age of deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, Week ending 4 December to Week ending 25 December 2020^3,4,5,6,7

Source: ONS

Table 3: Number of deaths involving COVID-19, by age group and whether a pre-existing condition was present, England and Wales, deaths occurring between March and June 2020[8]^{,[9],[10],[11],[12]}

[1]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsinvolvingcovid19englandandwales/deathsoccurringinjune2020

[2]https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/latest

[3] Deaths where COVID-19 (ICD10 codes U07.1 and U07.2) are mentioned anywhere on the death certificate

[4] For deaths registered from 1st 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.

[5] Does not include deaths where age is either missing or not yet fully coded.

[6] Does not include deaths of those resident outside England and Wales or those records where the place of residence is either missing or not yet fully coded.

[7] These figures represent death registrations, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.

[8] Figures include deaths of non-residents

[9] Figures are provisional

[10] Based on deaths involving COVID-19 (ICD-10 codes U07.1 and U07.2) rather than deaths where COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death

[11] Deaths occurring between March and June 2020 rather than deaths registered between March and June 2020

[12] Including deaths registered up until 4 July 2020.