Excess Winter Deaths (EWD) in England

View the atlas

Excess deaths in winter (EWD) is a continuous and very important public health issue in the UK, potentially amenable to effective intervention. This excess death is greatest in both relative and absolute terms in elderly people and for certain disease groups. It also varies from area to area. EWD are also associated with cold weather, but it has been observed that other countries in Europe especially the colder Scandinavian countries have relatively fewer excess winter deaths in winter compared to the UK.

Information on excess winter deaths is important in tackling certain premature deaths, in supporting energy efficient intervention in housing and also in encouraging fuel poverty referral. Recently, the Public Health White Paper published in 2010, “Healthy Lives, Healthy People” proposed a Public Health Outcomes Framework for consultation. Reducing excess winter mortality is one of the outlined outcomes for the “Healthy Life Expectancy and Preventable Mortality” domain.

This interactive mapping tool has been produced by the West Midlands Public Health Observatory (WMPHO) on behalf of the Public Health Observatories in England using Instant Atlas™ from Geowise. It allows the user to view excess winter deaths data in England with the facility to drill down to local authorities to access the following information:

  1. Excess winter deaths trend data for England and Local Authority from 1990-2009 (3 year rolling averages in the atlas with single year available as a download)
  2. Excess winter deaths by selected age groups (under 65s, 65-84, 85+)
  3. Excess winter deaths by selected disease conditions - Circulatory (ICD10 I00-I99), CHD (ICD10 I20-I25), Stroke (ICD10 I61-I69), Respiratory (ICD10 J00-J99), Influenza & Pneumonia (ICD10 J10-J18) and Chronic lower respiratory diseases (ICD10 J40-J47). Previous analysis has shown that these conditions contributed to most of the excess winter deaths in England.

Additional trend data for single years and technical documentation on excess winter deaths can be downloaded from the link below: