Coronavirus in Scotland: People in most deprived areas twice as likely to die with Covid-19

Mortality rates are also over four times higher in large urban areas than in remote rural areas.

The Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends was released by the NRS on October 6.

It shows that to Sunday September 27, there were 4,257 deaths registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Men are also significantly more likely to die with Covid-19 than women, adjusting for age.

The average age at death for those who died with Covid-19 was 79 for males and 84 for females.

Adjusting for age and population, Scotland had the third highest excess death rate in Europe for Covid-19.

47% of Covid-19 deaths registered to date occurred in hospitals. Another 46% of deaths took place in care homes and 7% at home or non-institutional settings.

So far in 2020 there have been 47,410 deaths from all causes.

This is 4,306 more deaths compared to the average over the last five years.

Pete Whitehouse, Director of Statistical Services said: “This report provides a review of statistics, trends and analysis of Scotland’s population for 2019. Given the impact of COVID-19, we have included the latest analysis of deaths involving COVID-19. Together, these provide a picture of Scotland prior to the pandemic and a summary of the spread and impact of COVID-19 on mortality.

“Today’s report describes how the number of deaths involving COVID-19 increased sharply in the first 6 weeks of the pandemic, before falling again, with numbers remaining very low since July.

“More than three quarters of deaths were among those aged 75 and over, and after taking age into account, people were more likely to die with COVID-19 if they were male, if they lived in an urban area, or lived in a deprived area."