Coronavirus death rate in coastal towns lower than inland areas

Coastal towns in England and Wales have far lower coronavirus death rates than inland areas despite having older populations and worse deprivation, new figures show.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that there had been 63 Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 for large coastal towns during the pandemic so far, but 102 per 100,000 for non-coastal towns.

In smaller coastal towns, 57 deaths per 100,000 were recorded, compared to 84 per 100,000 for comparable inland populations.

Around 5.3 million people live on the coast in England and Wales, with 3.5 million in seaside towns with tourist beaches and visitor attractions.

The coronavirus figures are intriguing given that coastal towns have higher levels of older people – 30 per cent of residents are over the age of 65, compared with just 22 per cent in inland towns.

Education is poorer and deprivation worse in coastal areas, both of which are known risk factors for ill health alongside age (the graphic below shows Covid-19 deaths by age range in England and Wales).

But experts said one explanation could be that more people in coastal locations are shielding, meaning they are better protected, adding that the figures showed seaside towns had little to fear from the recent influx of visitors.

Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said: "This looks like positive news for people living by the coast who may have been worried that stay-at-home holidaymakers would bring extra Covid-19 deaths to their more elderly resident populations.

"Older retirees with more indicators of deprivation, living in individual homes and less likely to be going out, are presumably much better insulated against Covid-19 infection and death than their less deprived metropolitan counterparts, for whom close contact with other people, including carriers of the virus, will be harder to avoid."

Scientists also said age groups may not mix as much in areas of low employment.

Dr Konstantin Blyuss, reader in mathematics at the University of Sussex, said: "With coastal towns having, on average, older populations who may not be doing so much commuting, combined with a smaller proportion of younger people who are generally socialising more, this all results in reducing levels of people mixing for extended periods of times in close proximity to each other.

"That could be one of the reasons why coastal towns in England and Wales have so far experienced smaller rates of Covid-19 deaths."