Tens of thousands of more Brits are dying than expected and experts don't know what the cause or reason is. From May to December 2022 there were 32,441 excess deaths in England and Wales.
This figure does not include Covid-related deaths. 'Excess deaths' are defined as the number of people who died above the five-year average.
The death rate count has been worked out excluding 2020, because the pandemic spiked death figures that year. More than 32,000 people would have been expected to be alive but died, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures across this period.
