Top stories

Excess Winter Mortality
in Northern Ireland 2020
EWM 2020

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 impact of Covid-19 on excess winter mortality in Northern Ireland in 2019/20 was to reduce the EWM total – because the majority of Covid-19 deaths had occurred in non-winter months (particularly April to July). However, the impact of Covid-19 on excess winter mortality in 2020/21 was reversed as it inflated the total number of winter deaths. By removing all deaths where Covid-19 was the underlying cause of death from the analysis and re-calculating EWM for 2020/21, the excess winter mortality reduced to 200. Excess winter mortality (EWM) continued to be higher in females compared with males, with females accounting for 53.4 per cent (600) and males counting for 46.6 per cent (520) of the excess winter mortality in 2020/21.

The leading cause of excess winter deaths was ‘all other causes’due to inclusion of Covid-19 in this category, accounting for 83.3 per cent of the excess winter mortality in 2020/21. In Northern Ireland, deaths in the winter months were 21.4 per cent higher than in the adjacent non-winter months – this proportion is the EWM Index (EWMI). The Health & Social Care Trust with the highest EWMI was the Southern Trust, with 41.4 per cent more deaths occurring in the winter months. In comparison, the lowest EWMI was in the Belfast Trust where 7.7 per cent more deaths occurred in the winter months, than in the non-winter months.

The highest regional EWMI in 2020/21 was in the Mid-Ulster Local Government District, where 44.0 per cent more deaths occurred in the winter months than in the non-winter months. Ards & North Down had the lowest EWMI, with 7.3 per cent more deaths occurring in the winter months.

Further data is available on the NISRA Website (Opens in new tab)

Weekly deaths in
Northern Ireland
Weekly Deaths in Northern Ireland

NISRA publish timely but provisional counts of deaths registered by the General Register Office for Northern Ireland (GRO). Weekly totals are presented alongside a 5-year weekly average number of deaths for the same week over the last five years. With the exception of the final 4 charts (daily and cumulative total of COVID-19 deaths and place of death), The majority of the data presented are based on the date of the death registration rather than on the date the death occurred, however there is some additional analysis on date of occurrence included. To allow time for registration and processing, these figures are published 7 days after the reference week.

The weekly bulletins are main mode for disseminating information on Covid-19 related deaths registered in Northern Ireland. The report continues to be supplemented with information on the number of Covid-19 deaths (where Covid-19 or suspected Covid-19 was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions).

Latest and historical data are available on the weekly deaths registrations in Northern Ireland web page (Opens in new tab).

Registrar General
Northern Ireland
RG 2020

The 99th Annual Registrar General Report was published on Thursday 21 October 2021.

There were 158 same-sex marriages in 2020, the first year legislation enabling them to take place came into force, according to the latest statistics in the 2020 Registrar General’s Annual Report.

The findings, published by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), show there were 3,724 marriages and 43 civil partnerships registered in 2020 in total. Of the 43 civil partnerships registered, 23.3% involved male partnerships, 9.3% involved female partnerships and the remaining 67.4% were opposite-sex partnerships.

The report also shows that October was the most popular month to get married in 2020 and Saturday, 10 of October was the most popular day, with 65 couples having married on that date. The average age for brides and grooms has increased to 34 and 36.3 years respectively, compared with 26.2 years for brides and 28.3 years for grooms in 1990.

The impact of Covid 19 Regulations, including limitations on social gatherings, has led to a drop in the number of weddings and civil partnerships registered in 2020 as many were postponed or cancelled.

The necessity to prioritise the registration of deaths, coupled with appointment-based procedures for births registrations also meant that the number of births registered dropped slightly in 2020 to 20,815 (10,772 males and 10,043 females). Of this, 45.1% occurred outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared to 18.0% three decades ago.

The report further reveals that the number of births to teenage mothers (mothers less than 20 years of age) continues to fall to a record low at 489 (2.3%) out of the total 20,815 births registered in 2020. This is less than half the number recorded a decade previously (1,265) and almost 75% less than three decades ago (1,853).

The average age of first-time mums has continued to rise, up from 25.3 years in 1990 to 29.2 years in 2020. The average age of all mums has similarly risen, from 27.9 years to 31.1 years over the last three decades.

2020 saw the second lowest stillbirth rate (3.3 per 1,000 births) on record in Northern Ireland, with 69 stillbirths registered.

The number of deaths registered in 2020 (17,614) showed an 11.8% increase on the 2019 total and 18.2% more than two decades ago when the severe flu epidemic occurred in 2000.

Cancer continued to be the leading cause of death in 2020, accounting for 26.2% of all deaths and was the most common cause of death for both sexes, with diseases of the circulatory system (such as heart disease and cerebrovascular disease) the second most common cause for both (21.5%). Final figures show that Covid-19 accounted for 9.2% (1,625) of all deaths registered in 2020 with almost half (44.5%) accounted for by people aged 85 or over.

In terms of population change, the estimated population of Northern Ireland rose by 1,800 people from mid-2019 to reach 1.90 million in the year. This increase can mainly be attributed to the difference between births and deaths.

Projections indicate that the population of Northern Ireland will continue to grow until 2048 with a potential fall in overall population projected beyond that. The number of people aged 65 and over is projected to overtake children by mid-2028.

Further data is available on the NISRA Website (Opens in new tab)

Accessibility
update
Accessibility

You may have noticed some presentational changes to our outputs during 2021. Any changes made have been to improve accessibility of outputs for people with disabilities. We have been working through outputs as listed in our publication schedule in accordance with each of the publication dates, with the intention that after 12 months all current publications will be mostly or fully accessible. The goal is to achieve 100% accessibility but with ever evolving guidance around various document and media types, it will be an ongoing effort.

Currently the aim is to have all formats consistent with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

At this point in time about a third of our publication schedule remains outstanding in terms of accessibility, but the intention is that all will be revised by the end of this year. We appreciate that some users may have experienced disruption due to the changes being made and we want to thank you for your understanding.

Other announcements

Upcoming publications

Please find scheduled publications for the next three months. Please note: all links open in a new tab.
Please note: dates are provisional and subject to change.

A full list of our upcoming publications can be found in our Publication Schedule (Excel 48KB) which is regularly updated.

User engagement

The Vital Statistics Unit held a meeting to update users on recent and planned developments to our outputs on 10 November 2021. We welcomed views from our users in terms of what is already produced and what was considered to be key gaps in terms of what is already produced and how it is presented.

A copy of the slides presented at the meeting and a document of issues raised before or during the meeting, along with responses to them, are available from our User Engagement (Opens in new tab) web page.

If you would like to be included in future user group meetings then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Contact us

NISRA is keen to receive your feedback to enable us to develop further.
- Is this something you find useful?
- Are there alternative or additional indicators you would like to see included?

Please e-mail comments to NISRA.

NISRA Vital Statistics,
Colby House, Stranmillis Court, Belfast BT9 5RR
E-mail:
Telephone: +44 (0)300 200 7836

NISRA website

 

Vital Stats Logo NISRA Logo