This is linked to my job and I'm a bit analytical with it, so forgive me if I go into too much detail.
In Scotland in 1994 there were 60020 deaths.
Between 1994 and the mid 2000s it drops to the low 50ks, it then climbs back up and in the first year of covid there 60019 deaths.
A reasonable guide
10% of population will die each year. *
With a considerable increase in the population there were actually less deaths than there were.
Now, this my gripe with the whole covid affair, and bear in mind that this is linked to my job, a job that I do very well at, the reporting of the deaths was highly dubious.
It was almost always given either in a % or in isolation with no context.
That imho is why the information which easily available became hidden away.
Deaths is both very easy to predict and very difficult to predict, we know within certain parameters how many people will die in a year, but we have little idea when.
It can be a harsh winter, a bad flu strain, a hot summer or neither of these and natural causes spread out over the year.
* this is purely accidental, I stopped to reply to a text from my wife and when I came back it was set to bold and I don't know how to take it off. Don't read anything into the bold

.