More than 3,500 excess deaths during pandemic, says CSO

Males accounted for 52% of death notices, and 48% for females. File photo

During 2020 and 2021, there were 3,533 ‘excess’ deaths in Ireland, according to analysis published on Thursday by the Central Statistics Office.

Using the website RIP.ie, which it said provides “real-time” data on deaths in Ireland, it said that pronounced increases in the number of death notices were reported in months during Covid-19 surges in Ireland.

This included 3,504 death notices in April 2020, 3,919 notices in January 2021 and 3,147 notices in February 2021. CSO statistician Rob Kelly said the data derived from RIP.ie proved useful in compiling these statistics during the pandemic when compared with other sources.

He said: “Due to the Irish custom of holding funerals within two to three days following death, these notices are usually placed in a fast and efficient manner, providing a valuable crowd-sourced means of tracking deaths.

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“The notices are placed close to 'real time'. We found that the average length of time between date of death and publication is about 1.1 days. In comparison, the statutory time limit for the registrations of deaths in the State is three months.” 

Analysing some 75,000 death notices for the period covering January 2020 to December 2021, it derived the excess mortality figure of 3,553. 

The CSO said that excess mortality measures the number of deaths over and above what would be expected under normal circumstances, with the number of expected deaths measured by calculating the average number of deaths for the same period in previous years.

In the case of the years the country was living with Covid-19, more than 3,000 excess deaths above what would have been normally expected were reported. In April 2020, there was a clear increase in death notices which contrasted sharply with dips in the number of deaths in the same month in previous years.

Continued analysis shows death notices on the website https://t.co/SOJPgph6XT provide close to 'real time' mortality trends in Irelandhttps://t.co/yazf2WA4FS #CSOIreland #Ireland #COVIDIreland #Health #Deaths pic.twitter.com/zVGk35PtKK

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) February 24, 2022

However, the CSO pointed out that not all of these deaths could be attributed to Covid-19 and measuring excess mortality is “not straightforward”. The excess death figure of 3,533 corresponds to the number of Covid-19 deaths reported during this period, which was 5,912.

“The difference in these two figures highlights that although there is a strong relationship, Covid-19 deaths are not by default excess deaths,” the CSO said. “Both figures are important as it allows analysis of both Covid-19 deaths and the overall impact of the pandemic through excess deaths.” 

The CSO also released a breakdown of death notices by gender throughout the period of the pandemic. Males accounted for 52% of death notices, and 48% for females.

This compared to the 5,952 confirmed Covid-19 deaths to 4 January, of which 53.5% were male and 46.5% were female.