New 2020 statistics released

New 2020 statistics for deaths registered in England and Wales are available on Nomis from 8th July 2021. The statistics include registered deaths by age, sex, selected underlying causes of death and the leading causes of death for both males and females.

Cause of death can be analysed by either the full International Classification of Diseases version 10 (ICD-10) or by a separate leading causes classification.

Three new 4-digit ICD codes have been added -

   U07.0 Vaping-related disorder
   U07.1 COVID-19, virus identified
   U07.2 COVID-19, virus not identified

One new leading cause has been added -

   LC47 COVID-19

The data is available from the Mortality statistics - underlying cause, sex and age dataset in the query tool.

Quality and Methodology

  1. The Mortality Statistics Quality and Methodology Information document contains important information on:
    • the strengths and limitations of the data
    • the quality of the output: including the accuracy of the data and how it compares with related data
    • uses and users
    • how the output was created
  2. The User Guide to Mortality Statistics provides further information on data quality, legislation and procedures relating to mortality and includes a glossary of terms. Information on how age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) are calculated is included.