County death totals up in 2021

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Weston County experienced an increase in deaths in 2021, while births stayed on trend, according to information provided by the Wyoming Department of Health. Statewide, the official records filed with Vital Statistics Services, part of the Wyoming Department of Health, show the same sharp increase in deaths last year over what had been expected before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a press release dated April 14. 
The press release says that 106 deaths were recorded among Weston County residents in 2021. In 2020, there were 80; in 2019, 60; in 2018, 80; and in 2017, 63 deaths. 
Statewide, there were 6,572 deaths recorded in 2021, 5,986 deaths recorded in 2020 and 5,122 deaths in 2019, according to official death certification information. 
“Before the pandemic, our data has shown steady, small increases in deaths for several years, largely due to our state’s aging population. That’s something we would have reasonably expected to continue,” said Guy Beaudion, Vital Statistics Services deputy state registrar. “However, the dramatically increased numbers of deaths over the last two years are unprecedented in Wyoming. It’s clear COVID-19 was a driving factor.” 
According to the New York Times COVID-19 statistics tracker, there have been 18 total deaths from COVID-19 reported in Weston County and 1,801 statewide. Dr. Sara Thurgood said the bulk of the Weston County deaths occurred during the two large 2021 outbreaks, January to March and August to October, although she suspects there may be deaths related to COVID-19 that were never classified as such for various reasons. 
“Bottom line, while we can’t officially declare this excess mortality in Weston County as being directly caused by COVID-19, we do know for certain that COVID-19 played a role and had a large impact on this increase from what was expected,” Thurgood said. “This is what we call correlation (as opposed to causation), and it is definitely a concern as we are seeing similar trends in just about every county across the United States for the past two years.” 
COVID-19, according to the press release, was responsible for the third-highest numbers of deaths in the state, with 1,025 recorded in 2021. Beaudoin noted that the top two causes of death were cancer (1,151) and heart disease (1,113) followed by COVID-19 (1,025),  with various accidents and adverse effects (379) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and related conditions (355) rounding out the top five causes. 
On the opposite side of the spectrum, births among county residents remained level with previous years, but deaths have outpaced births in the county in the past four years. According to the Health Department, Weston County residents gave birth to 57 babies in 2021, 57 in 2020, 55 in 2019, 57 in 2018 and 72 in 2017. 
Deaths also outweighed births on a statewide level, with 6,232 births among Wyoming residents in 2021. While the number of births is less than the number of deaths, more babies were born in 2021 than in 2020, when 6,132 babies were born. The increase went against a downward trend.
“Last year was the first in quite some time with an increase recorded in the number of new babies in Wyoming,’ Beaudoin said. “Previously, we had seen an ongoing significant downward trend over several years.” 
The highest birth rate over the past decade was in 2015 when Wyoming saw 7,678 resident births. 
In addition to death and birth rates, Vital Statistics Services also holds marriage and divorce records, reporting an increase in marriages and a decrease in divorces both on a county and statewide level. 
According to information provided, Weston County saw 42 marriages in 2021, 35 in 2020, 28 in 2019, 33 in 2018 and 30 in 2017. There were a total of 18 divorces in the county in 2021, 44 in 2020, 27 in 2019, 24 in 2018 and 27 in 2017. 
Statewide, there were 4,274 marriages recorded compared with 3,986 in 2020 and 4,062 in 2019. Some 2,158 divorces were finalized in 2021, compared with 2,227 divorces in 2020 and 2,253 in 2019.