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This post provides a rundown of global mortality trends over the last 12 months. We will describe cumulative trends in counts and rates of reported COVID-19 deaths and estimated excess deaths, identifying global trends, trends by World Bank income group and the Top 50 countries for each.
The relatively short window of 12 months has a number of advantages. They all center on the fact that the pandemic has evolved in many dimensions and that patterns of a too distant past may no longer be relevant to interpret current events.
Consider for example:
We start our rundown of global mortality trends with an examination of the number of fatalities because they matter the most in our book. Count every single fatality because a life lost is a life lost regardless of borders! Mortality rates afford a relative perspective and the trouble with them is that they tend to obfuscate the main locus of the pandemic’s global impact, especially with respect to populous developing countries.
Let’s turn to the numbers now.
Over the last 12 months, the world has accumulated a reported 450,000 COVID-19 deaths and an estimated 3,660,000 excess deaths. Over this period, we saw an inflection point around April 2022 when the pace of increase in mortality slowed considerably.
HICs dominated the globally reported numbers of COVID-19 deaths., followed in order by UMICs, LMICs and LICs. These rankings are rather different for estimated excess deaths, which were driven mostly by LMICs, followed by UMICs, HICs and then LICs.
Note also the gap between the two mortality concepts. The gap is currently the largest in absolute terms for UMICs, followed by LMICs. In relative terms, the gap is the most considerable for LICs, which start off from a position close to zero for reported COVID-19 deaths.
Which countries have had the highest cumulative counts over the last 12 months for COVID-19 and excess deaths? The charts below show the Top 50 with countries grouped by World Bank income group.
For reported COVID-19 deaths, the three countries that accumulated the most fatalities over the last 12 months are: China (97,000 fatalities), US (91,000) and Japan (34,000).
For estimated excess deaths, the top three countries are China (865,000 fatalities), India (514,000) and Bangladesh (291,000).
Next let us describe the relative mortality picture with fatalities normalized by each country’s population. While such metric does not lend itself to an accurate assessment of the pandemic’s overall impact, it is nevertheless useful in assessing pandemic performance at the level of a country or group of countries. And it helps assess the intensity of pandemic mortality relative to a specific population.
Over the last 12 months, the accumulated global mortality rate was a reported 6 COVID-19 fatalities per 100,000 people and an estimated 47 excess deaths also per 100,000.
The cumulative mortality rates by income group show different rankings than those for counts due to the large differences in population size. We traditionally see that reported COVID-19 death rates are highest in HICs, followed by UMICs, LMICs and then LICs. This has been the case also over the last 12 months.
Estimated excess death rates produce a different ranking. HICs have currently the highest excess rates, closely followed by UMICs. LICs and LMICs are not far behind.
Which countries have had the highest cumulative mortality rates over the last 12 months? We focus again on the Top 50 for COVID-19 and excess death rates, with countries grouped by World Bank income.
For reported COVID-19 deaths, the top three countries with the highest cumulative rate over the last 12 months are: Finland (73), Slovenia (61) and Greece (46), all expressed per 100,000 people.
For estimated excess deaths, the top three countries are Bangladesh (175), Lithuania (134) and Monaco (134), all again per 100,000 people.
The patterns of cumulative mortality show that the pandemic is far from over. We continue to see a large gap between reported COVID-19 and estimated excess deaths. Excess death counts are, as expected, much larger in the developing world, which is far more populous than the group of high-income countries. We also continue to see elevated excess death rates, where over the last 12 months high-income countries seem to have taken the lead, but the rest of the world is following closely.
While excess death rates have declined considerably, they remain at high levels. This is easily established by comparing the current level of excess deaths with the patterns that we have been used to before the pandemic. The chart above expresses current weekly excess deaths as a share in 2019 all-cause deaths and compares it with the share of the top cause of death also in 2019 all-cause deaths. As we can see, excess deaths currently exceed all the deaths that could be attributed to the #4 cause of death prior to the pandemic.
Another reason for remaining vigilant and exercising the necessary precautions is that the world remains incompletely and unequally vaccinated. As of today, we count 2.2 billion unvaccinated people, of whom 89% live in the developing world (UMICs, LMICs and LICs) and 69% in the poorer half of the world (the LMICs and LICs). The map shown above is a cartogram that shows where the unvaccinated live as land mass is distorted to represent the absolute count of those who have not received a single shot yet. The 10 countries that have the largest unvaccinated population are also highlighted (along with Australia and New Zealand to mark them more clearly on the map).
But this is not all. Among those previously vaccinated, many are not up-to-date on vaccination. This is reflected in the chart above which shows that global booster coverage (the dot in the first bar) is abysmally low. This is consistent with how the global booster campaign is doing. Compared to the first cycle (the primary vaccination campaign), booster vaccination progress is much slower and also more unequal.
In summary, it is premature to declare the pandemic over. This is evidenced by global mortality patterns that indicate ongoing high levels of excess deaths. In fact, the total number of excess deaths globally now exceeds that of the #4 cause of death prior to the pandemic, which is a worrisome trend that demands attention.
Disclaimer: Posts by the Center for Global Development reflect the views of the authors, drawing on prior research and experience in their areas of expertise. CGD is a nonpartisan, independent organization and does not take institutional positions. Likewise, views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme, its programmes/projects or governments. The designations employed do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area, or its frontiers or boundaries.
