Flu caused one-fifth of additional winter deaths in Scotland last year, figures show

The flu caused one-fifth of additional seasonal deaths last winter, statistics from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) have revealed.

There were 2,704 additional seasonal deaths in the winter of 2024/2025, with 530 due to the flu.

NRS said it was the largest seasonal increase of additional flu deaths recorded in at least the past 15 years.

Additional winter deaths are the difference between the number of deaths in the four winter months and the average of the two four-month periods on either side.

In total, there were 22,272 deaths between December 2024 and March 2025. NRS said last winter saw a seasonal increase in mortality of 2,704 compared to the surrounding non-winter periods.

The seasonal increase was higher than the previous year (1,796), but NRS said it was “not unusually high”.

“The illnesses most associated with increased deaths in winter are flu, dementia, and coronary heart disease,” NRS head of vital events statistics, Phillipa Haxton, said.

“Increased winter deaths are linked to age. In winter 2024 to 2025, there were 18% more deaths among people aged 85 or older compared to the months before and after winter. In the under-65 age group, there were 9% more deaths in winter.”

Very few deaths are directly due to cold weather, with fewer than ten deaths attributed to “exposure to excessive natural cold” in each year since 2019.

In the last 70 years, only the first pandemic year of 2020 saw more deaths outside of winter than during it.

In the 1950s and 60s, NRS reported an average seasonal increase in winter deaths of over 5,200, whereas over the most recent decade, it has averaged around 2,700.

“Comparing the number of deaths in winter with the surrounding non-winter periods shows that the number of additional winter deaths can change from winter to winter and over time,” NRS said.

“The number of additional deaths in winter has been around the same average level for the past 25 years, but has generally fallen over the long term.”

Behind the flu, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease accounted for the second-highest number of additional winter deaths last year (480), followed by coronary heart disease (300).