Care Home deaths fall to pre-pandemic levels

The number of deaths in UK care homes has dropped below pre-Covid levels for the first time, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS ‘Deaths of care home residents, England and Wales: 2021 dataset shows that 2021 saw 127,171 deaths of care home residents in England. This includes all causes of death.

This is over 28,000 fewer deaths than in 2020 (18.2%), and 4,213 (3.2%) fewer than the five-year average between 2015 and 2019, prior to the pandemic.

Covid-19 was still the second highest cause of death. Dementia and Alzheimer disease was the leading cause in both male and female care home residents in England (accounting for 26.4 per cent and 34.0 per cent of deaths respectively) and Wales (28.3 per cent and 36.2 per cent respectively) in 2021; Coronavirus (COVID-19) was the second highest leading cause of death in England (11.5% and 10.8%) and Wales (12.9% and 11.1%).

The East of England had the overall highest mortality rates (12,055 deaths per 100,000 care home residents) and London was the region with the lowest (8,673 deaths per 100,000 care home residents).