There were more deaths than births in the UK last year for the first time in 44 years due to Covid-19.

New population figures released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) lay bare the human toll of the pandemic.

The data reveals there were more deaths registered in the UK during 2020 than in any year since before the First World War.

Years in which more die than are born come along very rarely in modern British history, with 2020 becoming just the second year on record to see a negative swing.

As the country prepares to unlock amid official acceptance cases and deaths will rise, the ONS has warned the impact of the pandemic on population is far from over.

There were a total of 689,629 deaths in 2020, an increase of 84,922 from 2019.

At the same time, births decreased in 2020 to 683,191, a fall of 29,489 from 2019.

Statisticians say this shift in favour of deaths away from births hasn’t occurred since 1976, the only other year it happened since 1900.

That year saw 5,273 fewer births than deaths – but 2020 has set a new record, with a ‘negative natural change’ of 6,483.

The gap between deaths and births narrowed significantly in the mid-70s due to a variety of factors including increased access to contraception and abortion services.

While the ONS figures do not include deaths abroad, the finding that there were more domestic deaths in 2020 than during the blitz, rationing or the economic hardship accompanying two World Wars makes for sombre reading. 

Of the total deaths in 2020, 90,173 were Covid-related, about two thirds of the 153,000 pandemic deaths recorded both last year and in 2021 so far.

The new population estimates include only one part of the pandemic and do not reflect any rise or fall in the number of children conceived during lockdown as they will be included in next year’s figures. 

Warning the trend could be repeated, the ONS reported: ‘The first eight months of the period covered by the latest mid-year population estimates relate to before the pandemic, so these estimates do not show the full extent of its impact on births and deaths in the UK.’

The figures do not necessarily mean the population of the UK shrank overall as they do not take migration into account.

England and Northern Ireland saw more births than deaths but the opposite was true in Wales and Scotland, a demographic trend which has been evident since the mid 2010s.

Negative natural change in Scotland was by far the highest, with more than 17,000 fewer people born than there were deaths.

Speaking on Monday, Boris Johnson told the country to brace for more infections and funerals in the coming weeks and months.

Announcing a planned bonfire of restrictions on July 19, he said: ‘As predicted in the roadmap in February we are seeing cases rise fairly rapidly – there could be 50,000 cases detected per day by July 19.

‘And again, as predicted, we are seeing rising hospital admissions and we must reconcile ourselves sadly to more deaths.’

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