Excess Winter Mortality in Northern Ireland 2020/21

The Excess Winter Deaths report for 2020/21 was released this morning. It contains analysis on the difference between the actual number of winter deaths in December 2020 to March 2021 and the expected number of deaths.

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has today published statistics covering Excess winter mortality provisional statistics for 2020/21.

The report on Excess Winter Mortality (EWM) includes information on the provisional number of deaths that took place in Northern Ireland in the winter months of December 2020 to March 2021, compared with the non-winter months (including the preceding August to November 2020 and the following April to July 2021).

There were 6,340 deaths in Northern Ireland in the four months of winter 2020/21 (December to March). Comparing this with the average for the two adjacent 4-month periods, the seasonal increase in mortality in winter 2020/21 was an estimated 1,120. This was 590 more than the corresponding value of 530 for the previous winter (2019/20) and the second highest level of EWM since 1999/2000, with the exception of 2017/18 when the last big flu epidemic occurred.

The report and accompanying table can be accessed on the excess winter mortality page.

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