Excess mortality in the EU increased again in early autumn. Following a minimum of +5 % in July, this indicator rose to +8 % in August, +12 % in September and +17 % in October 2021 (compared with the averages of the same months in 2016 – 2019).
The situation continued to vary in most of the Member States, from +110 % in Romania to not more than 2 % in Italy and Sweden in October 2021.
The EU registered a peak in excessive deaths in April 2020 (+25 %) and another in November 2020 (+40 %).
This information comes from data on excess mortality published by Eurostat today, based on a weekly deaths data collection. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained articles on excess mortality and weekly deaths.
How did the situation evolve in your country?
Although excess mortality was observed during most of the last year across Europe, the peaks and intensity of outbreaks varied greatly across countries. For further analysis, you can read the Statistics Explained article on excess mortality and use the interactive tool by selecting the country you would like to analyse.
For more information:
- Statistics Explained article on excess mortality
- Statistics Explained article on weekly deaths
- Dedicated page on population & demography
- Excess mortality refers to the number of deaths from all causes measured during a crisis, above what could be observed in ‘normal’ conditions. The excess mortality indicator draws attention to the magnitude of the health crisis by providing a comprehensive comparison of additional deaths amongst the European countries and allows for further analysis of its causes.
- Please note that while a substantial increase in excess mortality largely coincides with the COVID-19 outbreak, this indicator does not discriminate among the causes of death and does not catch differences across sex or age classes.