Background The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the entire health care system, internationally as well as in Sweden. We aimed to study excess deaths (all death causes, but also COVID-19-related deaths) during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding age, socio-economic status, the situation in nursing homes, and place of death for nursing home residents. Design We performed a descriptive regional registry data study using VAL, the Stockholm Regional Council’s central data warehouse, which covers almost all health care use in the county of Stockholm. T tests and chi-square tests were used for comparisons. Results Compared with 2016–2019, there were excess deaths in March–May 2020 (p