Weekly deaths tables – week ending 16 February 2024

The tables containing data on deaths registered for the week ending 16 February 2024 were released at 9.30am today.

For the first time this week’s table 1, in the weekly death registrations tables, includes estimates based on the new UK-wide methodology to report on excess deaths. The new method is as advised by ONS in their blog post and methodology paper, and as pre-announced by NISRA in the October 2023 Vital Statistics newsletter and summarised in the information paper published on 20 February.

The previous estimates of expected deaths (5-year average of death counts) along with the resulting excess deaths will continue to be included in the table for 8 weeks for comparison and transparency purposes. Additionally, the current historical weekly deaths data has been expanded to include estimates of expected and excess deaths based on the new methodology. Going forward, excess deaths will also be included in the tables of the Annual Report of the Registrar General. 

Key points 

Date of registration

• The provisional number of total deaths registered in Northern Ireland in the week ending 16 February 2024 (week 7) was 339, 70 less than the previous week.
• The number of expected deaths for week 7 was estimated at 382 using the new methodology that is based on mortality rates and trends, compared to 344 using the previous, 5-year average based methodology. The relative number of excess deaths based on the expected deaths for week 7 was estimated at -43 and -5 respectively using the new and previous methodologies.
• Nine deaths mentioning Covid-19 on the death certificate were registered in week 7 of 2024, five less than the previous week.  These represented 2.7% of all deaths registered in that week.
• For 2024, by 16 February, 48.8% of deaths were males and 51.2% were females.  Just over two-thirds (67.8%) of deaths were in the 75 years and over age group.
• From week 1 of 2024, to the week ending 16 February, there have been 2,678 deaths registered. 1,289 (48.1%) of these took place in hospital, 499 (18.6%) in care homes and 890 (33.2%) at residential addresses, hospices, or other locations.

Date of death

• The provisional number of deaths occurring in the week ending 16 February (including those registered up to and including 21 February 2024) was 261.  

The tables are available from the weekly deaths webpage.

Historical weekly deaths data are available on the Final Historical Data page under weekly deaths.

More information on the new method for producing estimates of expected deaths, used to determine excess deaths, is available from the ONS website and a summary paper is available on the NISRA website.

If you would like to receive alerts about Vital Statistics releases, please email demography@nisra.gov.uk

Share this page