New riddle over excess deaths in UK and EU

Latest statistics from the UK government confirm an acute increase in excess deaths during 2022, and that the disquieting trend is continuing in 2023.

The data, issued by the UK Office for National Statistics and Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, show that from May-December 2022, 32,441 more deaths than usual were recorded, compared to the five-year average (2015–2019), excluding covid-19 as a cause.

And yet, somewhat puzzlingly, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, has reported that in March 2023, excess mortality in the EU increased only slightly compared with the previous month and stood at +0.3% above the baseline (the average number of deaths for the same period in 2016–2019) — despite the excess deaths apparently being from all causes.

‘This followed the positive developments of February 2023, when for the first time since February 2020 (pre-covid-19 pandemic period), there was no excess mortality in the EU as a whole, with the indicator falling to -2%,’ Eurostat states.

It’s evidently good news for EU countries — but why should the situation in the UK, still with thousands of excess (non-covid) deaths, be so dramatically different? All those people should be alive, but, sadly, they are not. If the UK included covid deaths in the figures, the situation would…