Re: Deaths BELOW Average ??
The UK's population is ageing and it's only natural that the older a population becomes, the more deaths we will see per year.
Age is the biggest killer and although average lifespan is increasing it's only very, very slowly so saying people live longer isn't accurate unless you mean by a few weeks.
As the new millenium dawned only one in six people in the UK were aged over 65 and by 2019 that had increased to one in five - by 2039 it is expected to be around one in four.
Taking the UK population as being 59 million in 1999/2000; 67 million in 2019; and a projected 74 million by 2039 according to the ONS gives us approximately the following numbers of over-65's in the UK according to ONS percentages:
2000 = 9.3 million over-65's
2019 = 12.4 million over-65's
2039 = 17.6 million over-65's.
Now I'm not suggesting this increasingly aged population alone as the reason for 2020's high excess deaths but it's certainly responsible for some of the number, as are other things besides Covid-19.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulat...on/january2021