Coronavirus: England 'highest level of excess deaths'
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England had the highest levels of excess deaths in Europe between the end of February to the middle of June, official analysis shows.
The Office for National Statistics said England saw the second highest peak rates of death in Europe, after Spain.
But England had the longest period where deaths were above average, and so overall had the highest levels.
The ONS analysis shows the epidemic in the UK was more widely spread than in other countries.
However areas in Spain and Italy were harder hit than cities in the UK.
Analyses that take account of the age of the population also show that England had the highest death rates in Europe in the weeks to the end of May.
Spain was second, followed by Scotland, Belgium and Wales.
An animated guide: What are excess deaths?
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Let's use the UK as an example. If 2020 had been an average year, the dotted line in the chart below shows how many people we would have expected to die each week. This is known as expected deaths and is calculated based on the number of deaths in previous years.
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Any deaths above those expected are known as excess deaths. During the coronavirus pandemic, many countries have recorded significantly more deaths than expected this year.
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Many of these excess deaths can be explained by the number of people who were officially confirmed to have had Covid-19. But in many places, that does not account for all the excess deaths.
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These other excess deaths may have been, directly or indirectly, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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The total number of excess deaths shows a more complete picture of the human scale of the coronavirus outbreak.
