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First quarter mortality in 2022 below pre-pandemic levels, says CMI

12 April 2022

During the coronavirus pandemic, the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI) is publishing frequent UK mortality analysis through its mortality monitor. Today’s update covers week 13 of 2022 (26 March to 1 April) and the first quarter of 2022, based on provisional England & Wales deaths data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 12 April 2022.

The key points of this update are:

  • Mortality in the first quarter of 2022 was slightly lower than in the first quarters of 2019 and 2020, before the pandemic.
  • There have been 2,200 fewer deaths than expected in the UK in the first thirteen weeks of 2022, despite 14,800 deaths in the UK with Covid-19 mentioned on the death certificate during that period.
  • There have been around 118,200 more deaths from all causes than expected in the UK from the start of the pandemic to 1 April 2022.

Cobus Daneel, Chair of the CMI Mortality Projections Committee, said: “Despite Covid-19 deaths averaging over 1,000 a week in the first quarter of 2022, overall mortality rates during this period are slightly lower than the pre-Covid rates seen in the first quarters of 2019 and 2020.”


All mortality monitor weekly updates are publicly available on the mortality monitor page.