AUTHORED BY RICHARD BROWN, ERIK PICKETT, DANIEL REDDY, December 17, 2019
Question:
Do more people die in the winter than the summer?
Answer:
For Canada, the UK and the US, the short answer is yes. How many
more depends on the location. The bar chart shows the ratio of
winter deaths to summer deaths in the UK, Canada and the US.
Surprisingly, the UK sees the largest ratio of winter deaths to
summer deaths over the period we have measured, despite having
the least variation in temperatures1.
Source:
Winter is defined as the beginning of December in the
previous year to the end of February. Summer is defined as
the beginning of June to the end of August. The 2013-2017
period was chosen as the most recent 5 year period where
data was available for all locations.
Data sources:
England and Wales:
ONS Deaths registered monthly in England and Wales
Scotland:
NRS Monthly Data on Births and Deaths Registered in
Scotland
Northern Ireland:
NISRA Monthly Deaths
Canada:
StatCan Monthly death data by province/territory
US:
CDC State monthly death data
But what happens if we zoom in closer?
The maps below show the ratios of winter deaths to summer deaths
for the US, Canada and the UK, split by state for the US,
province for Canada and by Scotland, Northern Ireland, England,
and Wales for the UK.
Source: as previous chart
What do you think?
Please post your questions in our
Friends of Club Vita
discussion group on LinkedIn.
1 The range of average historical monthly high and low UK temperatures is 33°F (18°C) compared to 52°F (29°C) for the US and 69°F (38°C) for Canada. (Source: www.weatherbase.com)