England and Wales’ death hotspots MAPPED as official statistics show mortality rates are twice as high in parts of country

• Overall, 577,160 deaths were registered in England and Wales in 2022 

Blaenau Gwent, Blackpool and Merthyr Tydfil had the highest death rates in 2022, figures revealed today.

Mortality rates across the three deprived boroughs were double levels seen in the City of London, Winchester and Ribble Valley, more affluent neighbourhoods.

An interactive heatmap, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), lays bare the divide in both nations.

It reflects a mortality rate for every 100,000 residents – rather than raw numbers of deaths. 

The figure also accounts for age, meaning the results aren’t skewed by districts that are home to a bigger proportion of pensioners. 

But it is calculated in a complex way that means it does not reflect the exact number who died.  

Overall, 577,160 deaths were registered in England and Wales in 2022, marking a 1.6 per cent decline on the year before.

But it was massively down on the 607,922 toll of 2020, which was the deadliest year since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 because of Covid.

Despite the overall number of deaths falling in the wake of the pandemic, levels are still above pre-pandemic norms. 

Thousands more adults are dying than expected, in a trend blamed on the obesity and NHS crises. 

Fascinating ONS data also revealed that Covid was the sixth leading cause of death in 2022.  

It marked the first time since the virus rocked Britain that it wasn’t number one, with the title instead passing back to dementia, which accounted for 11.5 per cent of all deaths. 

Geographical breakdown of the ONS stats revealed Blaenau Gwent in South Wales had the highest age-standardised mortality rate (ASMR), recording 1,321 deaths for every 100,000 residents. 

But this cannot be simplified to state that 1.3 per cent of its residents passed away last year. That figure — not provided in the ONS’s annual report — will be different. 

Blackpool (1,302), Merthyr Tydfil (1,281), Burnley (1,275) and Manchester (1,273) rounded out the top five. 

At the other end of the scale was City of London (648), Winchester (734), Ribble Valley (744), Hart (758) and Westminster (752).